


I'll Be There For You

by Doomkitty25



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Betrayal is ugly, Derek dates someone other than Stiles and it's a disaster, Derek eventually gets his shit together, Derek is Dumb, F/M, Lydia is awesome, M/M, Promise, Slow Build, Stiles is too self sacrificing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-13 22:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doomkitty25/pseuds/Doomkitty25
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Derek is dating a woman and finds out she's a horrible traitor, and so Derek runs to Stiles only to learn that he already knew. Derek needs to let his pack know, and while breaking the news he discovers even more horrific information. Luckily for Derek, Stiles is always and ever on his side ready to solve the problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Derek Delivers the Bad News

**Author's Note:**

> There isn't actually a lot of interaction between the OFC and Derek. This fic is mostly from Stiles point of view. It will shift to other pack members as they reflect on Stiles, but I will try to have page breaks and a header for each past reflection. Hopefully it doesn't turn out confusing for anyone. Also this is not beta'd. I'm still editing the word document to try and pick out the errors, but the story is mostly done. I'll be posting it as I finish editing. Thanks for reading, hope you like it!

Derek slipped into Stiles room by way of the window, and Stiles just shrugged. After five years of late night visitors using his window as a door, he no longer found it a source of alarm. Derek and Scott had worked things out not too long after graduation, and now that everyone was almost done with college, the pack life was pretty awesome. In fact, pack life was so great that Stiles had actually decided he might grow an actual pair of balls and ask Derek out. Lydia kept badgering him, and who was he to deny a goddess. He’d hoped, against all hope apparently, that Derek would be the one to do the asking. It was obvious as hell that Stiles wanted Derek, and sometimes Stiles thought Derek felt the same. He wasn’t absolutely sure though, so if Derek came to him then he’d be sure. This whole passivity thing was just finally getting to be too much for him. Stiles turned from his laptop and gave Derek his full attention when it became obvious that was the only way this conversation was going to get up and running.

Clearly the wolf had something to say because he looked odd. Not bad odd, or crazy supernatural creature is about to destroy Beacon Hills again odd, just odd. He was smiling. Smiling never signified anything good in Stiles opinion. “What’s up sourwolf?”

Derek seemed delighted that he’d asked. “I met someone.”

Stiles arched a brow, OH yeah he could totally do that with such skill these days that his wolfie pack wanted lessons. “Yeah, who’d you meet? That dude that plays the werewolf you like so much on True Blood.” Stiles grinned and Derek frowned.

“First of all, I don’t watch that stupid show, and second even if I did there is no better werewolf than me.”

“Derek, please, I know your dirty little secret.” Stiles mocked.

“SHUT UP STILES!”

Stiles giggled, “sorry, no seriously you seem excited. Who did you meet?”

Derek flopped down onto his bed. “Well I actually met her awhile ago. Her name is Rachel, and well I finally asked her out.” Derek said everything in kind of a rush.

Stiles gaze sharpened. Derek hadn’t met someone, he’d found someone. He was dating someone. It was everything Stiles could do to keep his heart from exploding with his feelings. Five years around werewolves had taught him a lot, casting an emotional shield on the fly was something he thanked the dead witches book collection, that he’d found his senior year, for almost weekly. “That’s great man, wow wasn’t expecting this at all. Happy for you though dude.” Stiles said evenly and with a false note of excitement that Derek, thank Christ, didn’t pick up on.

“Yeah, I’m not sure where I’m taking her yet, but the date is this Friday.”

“You should totally do that Italian place outside town. Fancy it up and shit." Stiles blinked his eyes, they'd begun to burn. Fuck. He needed a distraction like so bad. "So is Rachel a werewolf?”

“Yeah she is, she’s that omega I texted you about a couple of months ago.”

“Oh wow, so this has been going on for months then.” He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream. He settled for digging his nails into his palms. 

“What! NO! We’ve just been texting and stuff, nothing like really personal or anything. Which is kind of why I came over.” Derek said haltingly.

“You cannot seriously be about to ask dating advice from me.” Stiles barely kept himself from spazing out and running out of the room.

“No not dating advice.” Derek said with a glower. “I’m worried about trust.”

“In what way?” Stiles managed to ask in a calm controlled voice. It was taking some serious control, but he was getting his emotional turmoil under control. He seriously didn’t want Derek dating anyone but him, but he recognized a lost cause when he saw one. The man was laying on his bed with a dreamy expression plastered all over his face, and Stiles was realistic enough to admit that particular look was never in evidence when Derek was around him. Derek was set on this course of action, and if this is what it took for Derek to be any kind of happy then Stiles was on board. He was jealous as hell, but jealousy wasn’t what Derek needed. Stiles wanted Derek more than he’d ever wanted anyone in his life, but that want paled in comparison to Stiles’ desire to see Derek happy. If this female werewolf chick could make Derek happy, Stiles would suck it up like a big boy.

He’d learned his lesson with Lydia, if they acted like they didn’t want you, if they told you they didn’t want you, and they found true love with another person, then the battle was over and moving on was seriously his only option. Derek had never said that he didn’t want Stiles, but he’d never absolutely acted as if he had, not in a romantic sense anyway. So, if this was Derek’s true love, then Stiles would step aside and back Derek up 100%. But if she wasn’t, the bitch had better be prepared for war.

“What if I can’t trust her, what if I’m so afraid of not trusting her that I can’t even start this relationship?” Derek’s concern lacing his tone and making him sound so young Stiles wanted to cuddle his worries away. Thankfully, Stiles had years of keeping himself in check.

Stiles cocked his head to the side and looked at Derek. His brow was furrowed, his lips were compressed in a tight frustrated grimace. It had taken Stiles years to get Derek to open up with any sort of sincerity. He was still awful with expressing himself most days, but he at least tried now. Stiles sucked it up and took one for the team, Rachel had better be all that Derek ever wanted or needed. “Derek, listen to me, it’s going to be fine.”

“Damnit Stiles, I have trust issues. My therapist tells me that my trust issues have trust issues. You scream at me about trust issues. I really want this to work, she’s amazing. I didn't say anything at the time, but when I looked at her something just clicked.”

Stiles laughs, if it comes out a little forced, Derek doesn’t acknowledge it. “You trust me and the pack.” Derek’s look was not impressed. Clearly he wasn’t going to make this easy thought Stiles. “Then how about this, I don’t trust her.”

Derek scoffed throwing Stiles his best petulant look. “You’ve never even met her, and how exactly could that possibly help this situation?” Stiles doesn’t bring how weird that is into this conversation. If Derek trusted her, then everyone in the pack would have known and met her already. This wouldn't even be an issue. Stiles shoots for a different course of action, all in the name of Derek’s future happiness.

“Shut up sourwolf and listen to me. I don’t trust her, and I won’t trust her, for you. No matter what she does, how nice she is, or what she does to attempt to convince me. I will never trust her. That way if you ever doubt her, if there is ever a glimmer in your mind that she’s not all she says she is, then you can come to me without fear of me not believing you. You can come to me no matter what. I will also personally take it upon myself to keep an eye on things for you, things you might not notice being blinded by sex and all. I promise I will never let her harm our pack. So you can be safe, you can trust her as much or as little as you need to. And, in the end, if it becomes necessary, I’ll be there to protect you.” Stiles could feel his soul dying. Like literally. How stupid do you have to be to give the love of your life free reign to ride off into the sunset with another person. He stifled a sigh and got up from his computer chair to walk over to his window. The day was sunny and warm, Stiles felt like it should be raining. He watched Derek watch him, and then the werewolf’s face dropped. His brow furrowed. His lips compressed in an awful flat frown. Stiles was concerned.

“What did we ever do to deserve you Stiles?” Derek asked in a soft quiet voice. “There is nothing that I could give you that would ever repay you for putting our pack first.” He looked up at Stiles, “Thank You.” Derek wasn’t giving him his pissed off face, he was giving him his “you’re kind of my best friend and an awesome pack member” face.

It was everything Stiles could do to keep the choking emotion out of his voice. He’d literally melted at Derek’s words and he needed time to process the words and Derek’s intention. Derek was killing him. “God don’t sweat it dude. I’m part of the pack, I’d be looking out for myself as well. Besides, I have a hard time with trusting outside the pack, so seriously no worries. I’ll watch her, and you can rest easy.” Stiles deflected. He deflected so hard. If Derek even caught a whiff of his emotions right now he’d never trust Stiles again. Werewolf man needed to leave so Stiles could wallow in his own lonely misery.

“I’ll call a pack meeting next week to introduce her to everyone. I just want to get the first date out of the way to be sure everything goes right.”

And, just like that Derek was out his window, and Stiles was left standing in his room with no clue how to feel or what to do. It could be that this relationship blew up in Derek’s face and nothing came of it, or she could be the love of Derek’s life. In which case, Stiles was so screwed. He needed a milkshake like now. There was only one dinner in town that had worthy enough milkshakes for the amount of angst that was trolling around in Stiles brain, so he grabbed his keys and set out.

He chose the booth in the back of the Dinner in hopes that he wouldn’t be seen by anyone that knew him, because anyone that knew him would understand that having a milkshake alone in the middle of the afternoon signaled trouble. Of course Lydia would walk by, of course Lydia would walk in, and of course there was no way in hell Lydia would pass by without sitting across from him in his misery.

“Stilinski. Talk to me.” She demanded.

Stiles looked up from his cold chocolate misery. “I don’t want to.”

“We can do this the hard way. I can, and I will you know I will, call the pack and you can hash your problems out with everyone watching, or you can be a grown up twenty two year old almost college grad and explain to me why you are sitting in this dinner drinking your feelings.” She snapped.

Stiles arched his by now infamous brow, “Fine. Derek has met a lady werewolf, and within two months of their acquaintance has asked her out. While I, After five years, don’t get so much as an acknowledgement of feelings. I am wallowing, but after this is over I clearly intend to move straight the fuck on.” He groused.

Lydia’s eyes went wide. “Oh honey, damn that man. What happened? How do you even know?”

Stiles could feel the burn behind his eyes. “Oh that’s the truly spectacular part. He told me first. He came over in the middle of the afternoon just to let me know, and then, and THEN, he wanted to talk to me about how much he was afraid of this new relationship failing because of his emotional trust issues. Friend zone is apparently my permanent address.” The tears wouldn’t fall because Stiles was a master of control. He was the Obi Wan of emotional bullshit. Magic training with Deaton had turned his will into iron.

Lydia kept quiet. She knew enough about heartbreak to understand exactly what Stiles was going through. Jackson had tried to leave her during senior year. He’d moved to Florida with his parents in the hope that distance would cure Lydia of her love of him. His desire to keep her safe had overshadowed his desire to keep her happy. He’d been absolutely sure to post pictures of himself and hot beach bitches on his Facebook less than a week later. Lydia had been devastated. They were back together now, but she’d made him grovel. In fact, he was still groveling much to her immense pleasure.

Stiles and Derek had never had a romantic relationship that involved sex, but the Alpha leaned on Stiles. He leaned on Stiles so much that everyone assumed that Derek and Stiles were together, but because of Derek’s emotional constipation they just hadn’t fully integrated the relationship into the sexual realm. They were so much an item, that a few months ago on Valentine’s day when all of the couples had gone out to dinner and had their romantic evenings, Derek had invited Stiles over and they’d watched The Notebook while having dinner and wine. Lydia knew because she’d come over the next day to get her movie and saw the remnants of the dinner from the night before. Lydia wanted to be furious with Derek, but she wondered if maybe Derek dating someone else would push him to realize his feelings for Stiles. This could be a good thing. She had absolutely no intention of telling Stiles that though.

“So, how are we handling this situation Stiles?” She asked boldly. The only way to handle Stiles was to plow straight through and give him something to hold on to.

“It’s not like I ever had a chance, I knew that, know that, it’s just letting her in like that without any restrictions, it makes me want to bash his head into a concrete surface…repeatedly. I know I’m just human and nowhere near the werewolf superpower league, but I had to fight to be considered pack. Now he’s just letting in a stray omega as if she were a long lost friend. I dunno Lyds I’m just.”Stiles cut off staring at her with his wide golden bambi eyes.

“Hurt, of course you are honey, and you have every right to be. Derek has the emotional range of a teaspoon to quote one of my better role models, how do you want to play this out though. You need a plan.”

“I just don’t even want to see or deal with him right now. I don’t want to acknowledge his existence. He said he’s going to call a pack meeting next week to let the whole pack meet her, and the clueless idiot has no idea how ridiculous it’s going to make me look. We were never really together I get that, but he’s basically declaring our whatever the hell it was, over. In front of the pack no less. I don’t know what to do Lyds, I can’t even think of planning right now.” Stiles said quietly and with a note of sorrow.

“Well first and foremost it’s Summer. You have exactly one semester left of school. Instead of coming home for your break, you are going to spend time with me in Italy. We’re going to Florence. You can also visit Rome and hole yourself up in obscure libraries to your hearts content. We’ll keep an eye on the interloper, but you don’t have to spend more time than you have to around her. At the pack meeting just keep a constant barrier spell up and you should be good. It’s May and you’ll be back in school by the end of August, and I’ll get on scheduling our trip in November. That’s about four months Stilinski, you can keep it together that long and I’ll help you.”

“You know he sat there and said he didn’t know what he would do without me after I agreed to not trust the girlfriend, I just, I don’t know how I’m going to make it four months.” Stiles couldn't keep the forlorn quality out of his voice, and he knew he was being pathetic but he couldn't make himself stop.

“What do you mean not trust the girlfriend?” Lydia asked confused.

Stiles recapped his and Derek’s conversation and watched Lydia’s eyes bug out of her head. “What an imbecilic oblivious moron. It’s times like these when I wonder if he has any clue at all how to use the extra powered senses he was born with.”

“I cast an emotional blocking spell the minute he told me he’d met someone. I’m not a complete idiot, nor am I a glutton for my own humiliation.” Stiles quipped.

“Whatever, finish your milkshake Stilinski we’re going shopping, and then we’re going to discuss exactly how we’re going to get you through the next four months until you’re allowed to run away to school.”


	2. Chapter 2

**6 months later**

Derek slipped through his window, and Stiles nearly jumped a foot. It was October, and he’d been working on an essay with his window closed. His apartment was on the fourth floor; incidentally, he’d not had a lot of werewolf action through his bedroom window since moving to his new place. Derek inviting himself in via the window was either a cautious desire to inform Stiles something was going down in his building, or he had some weird notion that Stiles wouldn’t answer the door when he knocked, a distinct possibility given the tension between the pair of them for the past six months. Stiles turned around in his computer chair and let his mouth drop open. “Dude, you look like shit. What’s going on?” Derek had bags under his eyes and bloodshot eyes. The man looked as if he hadn’t slept in a week.

Derek stared at Stiles, his inner creeper coming out to play. He stalked across the room and pulled Stiles up gently, GENTLY, so he was standing before his alpha. Stiles was freaking out. Gently dragging Stiles anywhere was never part of the Alpha’s MO. “Stiles, I’m about to ask you a question. Don’t lie.” Derek said with a barely controlled snarl. Stiles nodded his head frantically.

“Did you know?” He asks softly.

Stiles has seen Derek in a fury, and this is so far beyond furious he doesn’t even know a word to describe it, it’s like Derek has hit the eye of a tornado and whatever Stiles says is either going to continue the storm or kill it. He bites his lip. “Did I know what?” He asked tentatively.

Derek's eyes glow red, he growls and clenches the front of Stiles T-shirt in his fist. “Did you know about Rachel?”

Stiles shakes his head trying his best not to antagonize his pissed off Alpha any further. “Derek man, I know a lot about Rachel. You’re going to have to give me more to go on.”

Derek snarls. “What do you know?”

“Jeezus fine. I know she’s not 28 like she told you, she’s more like 35. I know that she’s from somewhere around the Michigan area and she was bitten not born, and I think I’ve finally found her old Alpha. I know that she’s not always been an omega.” Stiles said carefully.

Derek pushes him back down in his computer chair, and promptly raises his voice so it can almost be heard in Alaska. “DID YOU KNOW SHE WAS SELLING INFORMATION TO HUNTERS?!!”

Stiles’s winces. “Oh that. Yeah I knew.” Stiles doesn’t even try to clarify. He knows full well that Derek is entirely too pissed off to even listen to him at the moment. He watches warily as his Alpha stalks up and down the room muttering to himself. Finally, he sits on Stiles bed and jerks the computer chair forward so Stiles is facing him straight on.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” He asks with so much fury Stiles is having a hard time looking him in the eyes. Even though he’d had a really good reason, even though he was in the right, he still feels like shit.

“Of course I was Derek, damnit, why would you think that I wouldn’t have?” Stiles chokes out.

“Because you didn’t tell me, when was it going to be enough Stiles, when she burned down my damned house with the pack in it.”?” He snarls the last bit.

“Okay first of all dude, not fair. If I thought there was any immediate danger I would have come to you without question and without reservation. Second of all, throwing what information I do have out to you without you knowing anything at all wouldn’t have done either of us any good. You wouldn’t have believed me, and if you did you would have resented me. I DO NOT have enough information to accuse anyone of anything at this point. I know she’s selling werewolf secrets, but what I don’t know is why.” Frustrated and hurt that Derek would think he would ever let anyone hurt the pack, he folded his arms across his chest and glared. His leg started bouncing and he began biting his lip, Derek was being completely unfair.

“You still should have told me, I’m your Alpha and when something threatens the pack I need to be made aware of it immediately.” Derek groused.

Stiles jumped up from his chair and bent a little at the waist so he could get in Derek’s face. “God damn you no, it was too dangerous for me to tell you. Too much could have gone wrong. I would never let her hurt our pack. The secrets she’s sliding across the table are about other wolves, not ours. I’ve managed to get warnings to all the ones I know about in time. Before I came to you I needed more information.” Stiles threw his arms up in the air. Exasperation heavily weighing down his tone as he said “You’re dating her for gods sake. If I just walked up to you and said, “Oh Derek by the way your girlfriend, she’s totally sliding info along to the Theron family of Hunters. You would have wanted to know all that I knew, and if it wasn’t concrete enough you would have either dismissed the idea entirely or gone to her and told her, leaving us at a disadvantage.” Stiles fell back down into his computer chair and instead of facing Derek turned so he was looking out his window. He’d arranged his room similarly to his old room at home, the only difference was he didn’t have a dresser he had four bookshelves two on each side of the room.

The situation between Derek and Rachel was delicate. He needed to ensure the packs safety and if they had a traitor in their ranks that the Alpha refused to acknowledge, then shit would have gotten seriously bad. Stiles wanted to stand up and pace while spilling the information that he had become aware of just before school started. It’s the reason he was still in Beacon Hills and not living on campus. He’d arranged to take all of his final courses online so he could be close to home and watch the conniving bitch his Alpha had tangled himself up with.

“Everything you know Stiles, I mean it everything. Leave nothing out or so help me I will rip your throat out.” He doesn’t even need to add the “with my teeth” anymore, it’s so heavily implied. Stiles sighs, walks over to his computer desk and grabs a file folder from the safe in the floor under his desk. Peter had installed it. “Also, who the hell else knows about this?”

Stiles eyes widened as he handed over the folder, Derek would not be happy. In fact, he cringed as he sat back down, hesitant to tell Derek. “Um just me and um Peter.” Yup, there was the “I’m going to burn your world to the ground” glare of doom. Derek’s eyebrows dipped low and his eyes burned a vicious blood red.

            “Peter knows.” Derek snarled as he clenched Stiles comforter in his hands. He looked like he was going to leap off the bed and go hunting….for Peter.

            “Derek chill out man. Peter found out before I did, I DIDN’T TELL HIM. He overheard her on the phone with one of the Theron’s and chose to follow rather than confront. He realized what was going on. Actually, we both used phones to figure her out. I pay the house bills for you every month when I do my own and my dad’s so I was going over the phone bill to be sure everyone is good on the plan, when I came across a number I didn’t recognize. I traced the number, researched it a bit and realized that it was a hunter being called. The phone was Isaac’s. It didn’t take much for me to recognize a pattern to the calls, she uses his phone every Thursday when he and Danny go to the shelter. I tapped the call and et voila here we are.”

            Derek shook his head and rubbed at his forehead in frustration. “Is Peter the reason you didn’t tell me?”

            “No that was actually a very mutual decision. He found out I knew when I was very discretely trying to bug her purse. We talked about telling you, but we were afraid with as little information as we had, that you wouldn’t believe us or that something would go wrong. We have no idea why she’s doing what she’s doing.” This frustrated Stiles to no end. He wanted a reason. He needed a reason for her actions, because he wanted to eviscerate her and he needed more information than just her seemingly lack of good sense.

             He pulled the green highlighter out of his pocket and began rolling it between his hands; he was getting antsy contemplating her reasoning. “I mean she could be selling the information, but we don’t think she is. She could be handing over the information to save someone the Theron’s have locked up in their basement. She could be madly in love with one of the hunters and the only way to get into the fold is to sell out werewolves. I’m long on theories here, but short on facts. Actually, since I think I’ve finally found her Alpha I might have more facts available shortly. He’s supposed to get in touch day after tomorrow.” Derek was reading the file that Stiles had compiled with all the information about the werewolves and the information Rachel had handed over, while he was explaining Peter’s involvement.

            “It says here you contacted the Alpha of the teenaged wolf she gave the identity of to the Theron’s. Who is the Alpha and what did you tell him? Does he know I’m dating Rachel?” Derek had his scowly face back on.

            “Yes he knows.”

            Derek’s wolf comes back to the surface, his eyes flashing at Stiles. “You’ve taken this to other Alpha’s but not your own.” He growls and Stiles watches his claws contract.

            “Will you calm down. All the alpha’s I’ve talked to think you’re fucking her for information. I would never, NEVER, make you look bad like that in front of another pack. We told them what we know, and I told them we didn’t want to kill her because we were afraid that the Theron’s would just use someone to take her place. Someone we didn’t know about. Better the devil you know, and the Alpha’s all agreed with me. I told them not to contact you because we didn’t want Rachel getting suspicious, but after all this is over I think you might have a pretty good headway with some serious treaty making with the surrounding werewolf packs.” Stiles was going for optimistic, but by the look on Derek’s face he knew he’d failed.

            “I’m not interested in treaties right now Stiles.” Derek stood up from the bed and walked over to the window. “I need to tell the pack. I guess I should call a pack meeting.”

            “NO.” Stiles shouted.

            Derek looked back at him shocked, “Stiles this is not your decision.”

            “NO, damnit, I’m not saying you can’t tell them just don’t call a pack meeting. God, they’re friends with Rachel. Erica and her go shopping every weekend. If you call a meeting, she’s going to show up; if you tell everyone not to bring Rachel they’re going to get suspicious, tell her that something is up, and our cover of secrecy is subsequently blown. Tell them one at a time. I’ll sit with you, go over the facts, and by the way I need to know how you found out at some point, and we should start with Erica.” Stiles said in a rush not bothering to pause for breath.

            Derek nods in acquiescence, not phased in the least by Stiles word vomit, but asks “why Erica first?”

            Stiles shrugs. “She’s going to be the hardest to convince. Erica and Rachel have gotten close, they’re both female werewolves and Erica’s finally got someone around who understands the girl side of things. The whole werewolf chick bond is going to be hard to break. In fact, breaking the bond between all of the betas and Rachel is going to be harsh, they practically think of her as pack dude. Erica is not going to take this well at all. But, if you can convince her, Boyd will fall in line and Isaac won’t feel like he’s torn between his pack mates. Then tell Lydia, she’ll recognize the facts and accept them, and as far as Jackson is concerned he’ll do what you and Lydia say, he’ll also appreciate being told before Scott.” He watches Derek digest what he has said as he looks out the window. Derek looks far too pensive. Stiles throws himself on his bed and gets comfortable. He’s had a long day, never dreaming that he’d have to deal with traitor reveal hour because Derek had somehow figured out Rachel’s secret.

            Derek looks over to him, “Why wait so long to tell Scott?”

            Stiles winces, “because Scott isn’t going to believe us. He would attempt stomping out of the house to go warn her that we have the wrong idea, unintentionally giving away that we’re on to her. He’s entirely too noble, so we have to tell Allison first and then we break it to Scott. Allison is the only one that can keep him from doing what he thinks is the right thing.”

“You’ve clearly been thinking about this for awhile.” Derek mutters.

“Well yeah of course I have you idiot. Once the Alpha I’m waiting on gets back to me I should have what I need. I was going to tell you Derek, I had always planned on telling you, I just needed more proof and a good idea of why it was going on. So when I did tell you everything didn’t go to shit.”

“What do you think this Alpha will say that will give you enough information about her?” Derek asked.

Stiles shrugged from his position on the bed. “Well if I’m not wrong on the research front, and lets face it I’m not usually wrong, then the Alpha I contacted in Michigan is her husband.” Stiles winced, waiting for Derek’s fury to erupt all over him again, but he was surprised. Derek just sat down on the bed next to him with a look of utter and complete resignation. Stiles shifted and lifted himself up to be sure he was staring directly at his Alpha. “It’s not your fault man. Seriously, you didn’t know so don’t beat yourself up about it.” Derek shifted forward so that his face was in Stiles' neck. He nuzzled a bit before pulling back.

Derek stared at Stiles, took in his open honest face. “I’m not talking about his right now. My pack comes first and telling them about this is my first priority. I’ll deal with the rest of it later.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and stared at it as if it were a portent of doom. He slid his free hand across Stiles' calf and squeezed. He was seeking the comfort of his pack, but more importantly he was driving Stiles absolutely crazy.

Erica was number three on his speed dial. “What’s up Alphaman?” She said in a friendly almost perky tone.

“Meet me at Stiles’ apartment.” He commanded with no inflection.

“Something wrong?” She asked quickly.

“No, just have something I want you to take a look at.” He said succinctly.

“Sure thing bossman. Be there in 10. Should I bring anyone else?”

“No.” Derek promptly hung up.


	3. Erica

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek tells Erica.

Stiles arched a brow. “Your manners have not improved.” Stiles rolls off the bed away from Derek and his confusing touch. “Lets do this in the living room. Also, you might think on how you plan to break it to her because if you start off with “Rachel is working with hunters” your beta is going to punch you in the face.” Derek did not look impressed. “Just sayin dude.”

Stiles made his way into his living room and plopped down on his sofa. His dad had found it at an estate sale thingy and dragged it over one afternoon. It was an old leather couch and so comfortable Stiles passed out on it more than he was willing to admit. Derek took his place on the cushy chair to his left, and they waited in comfortable silence for Erica to arrive. Stiles wanted to ask Derek if he was okay, but with what the Alpha had said in the other room, he knew he wouldn’t get much out of him. Probably nothing. Derek was closed off, a whole lot like he’d been when Stiles first met him. That more than anything made Stiles sad.

Derek had attended therapy at the pack’s suggestion, or rather at Lydia and Stiles’ suggestion, and it had helped him heal. He was still a grumpy sourwolf, but it was tempered by the love he had for his pack. He’d stopped having trouble expressing his approval for his betas, and he’d become more tactile. Stiles had stepped aside when Rachel came into the picture because honestly she was a werewolf, and Stiles had hoped she’d make the pack stronger. He was willing to sacrifice any and all feelings he had for Derek to ensure the health and well being of his pack.

 Lydia claimed it was because of pack hierarchy and as the human pack member he was by default a caretaker. A guardian of sorts, willing and able to do things for the pack that they couldn’t do themselves. He’d countered that she and Allison were also pack. Lydia claimed that they weren’t actually pack, they were in a sense because Derek said they were, but neither one had a connection to the pack the way that Stiles did. Stiles could sense the betas and Derek. Deaton hadn’t said much when Stiles had come to him with questions. He’d only said that perhaps it was because Stiles was a magical human alpha in the eyes of the pack. He could go toe to toe with Derek and not back down. The wolves respected that and accepted him into the fold. As for the girls, perhaps Lydia and Allison had yet to be tested.

Erica came through his apartment door in an energetic rush quickly locating her alpha and the lounging Stiles. She’d finally ditched the leather fetish after high school graduation, and her normal attire these days consisted of jeans and quirky blouses. Mostly, she said it was because the clothes were easier to replace than the expensive leather she’d been so fond of as a teenager. “What’s going on?”

“Have a seat.” Derek waves to the couch and Erica drops down beside Stiles. He can feel her tense at his presence and he’s not sure why. He thinks he detects a hint of guilt though he can’t imagine what she thinks she may have done.

“Jeez dude you make it sound like she’s in trouble. Relax.” Stiles admonished.

“You mean I’m not here because I’ve been a naughty girl?” She purrs in Stiles’s direction.

He rolls his eyes. “No you ridiculous minx. You’re here because we’ve got some seriously bad news and we need you to like not freak out.”

Erica’s eyes get rounder than they already are and she turns her gaze to her Alpha. “What’s he talking about? Is someone hurt? I’d know if someone were hurt?” Her tone is rising in fear.

“No, no one is hurt.” Derek states.

“Oh well then, just tell me.” Erica demands.

Stiles sighs. “In ten minutes you came up with zip didn’t you. Damnit Derek.” Stiles turns to Erica. “First of all, do you know or have you ever heard of the hunter family Theron?”

Erica looks at him puzzled. “No, never heard of em.”

“Okay, crash course. They’ve been traipsing around the globe for as long as the Argents and they don’t have a code. Like no code. No shame. And No Morals. They are seriously bad news. They do bad things to wolves on a regular basis.” Stiles shifts his body so his back is to Derek and he’s fully facing Erica.

“Okay are they in town or something?”

“Or something. They’ve been using a werewolf to gather information about other werewolves. The werewolf gives them names of unknown werewolves, or locations of unknown werewolf homes.”

“My god do we know who the traitor is, and how are we helping the other werewolves?” Erica asked with fierceness.

Stiles smiled at her, Erica was a wonderful person and her fierce need to protect was such a wonderful thing to experience.  “I have the information in a file folder right here.” He indicated the coffee table. “The only thing is, Erica we know the traitor. You’re going to have a hard time accepting this, but I want you to know that we wouldn’t have brought this to you if we were not absolutely certain of their identity. I can give you more information after you’ve read the file, but I’ll try to let you adsorb as much as you can this way.”

Stiles stood from the couch and made his way over to Derek’s chair and sat down on the arm, he watched Erica pick up the folder with trepidation. Her face tightened when she figured out that it was Rachel that he had been referring. She flipped through all of the information and slammed the folder down on the table.

“You expect me to believe this bullshit Stiles. What is it, you don’t trust her so no one else in the pack can either.” She shouted.

Derek stood up from the chair, and growled his Alpha eyes glowing at his Beta. “That’s enough Erica.”

She bared her neck and sat back down on the couch petulantly looking up at Derek. “Stiles didn’t come to me with this Erica, I came to him.” Derek dropped back down into his chair.

She stared in disbelief. Stiles knew she was having a hard time, betrayal was eating away at her gut. He imagined Derek had felt the same a few hours prior. “I was at her place and she wasn’t there yet. The bottom drawer of her computer desk was open, and when I sat down at the desk I knocked a pen off into the drawer.” Stiles was focused, apparently Derek was about to tell them how he’d found out about Rachel. He was having a hard time getting it out though, so without thinking Stiles placed his hand on Derek's shoulder and squeezed in silent comfort.

He took a deep breath and continued, “When I went to grab the pen I noticed that one of the files she’d labeled said Alpha Macon. I know Alpha Macon, his pack lives in Colorado, my parents used to invite him down every summer.” Oh shit thought Stiles, that’s how Derek knew that Stiles knew about Rachel. Stephen Macon was friends with Derek, and if Derek had seen that file he’d probably called him to see if he was alright. Well shit.

Derek continued with his story. “They like the cold and the mountains, but they always had fun running in the forests here. Anyway, I pulled the file wondering how she knew him and why she had a folder with his name on it. There wasn’t a lot in the file, but it was obviously a fucking transcript of a conversation she had with one of the Theron’s. There was also a check stub for five grand. She sold the Alpha’s exact location to Theron, I called him on the way over here and he said he and his family were fine that they’d been warned by one of my pack members.”

Erica finally lost it and the tears started streaming down her face. Stiles wanted to go over and comfort her, but he knew Derek needed to get this out. “Stiles has known about it for a while, but he didn’t come to me with the information because he didn’t think he had enough to go on. I’m telling you that she’s a traitor, I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes, and for all that Stiles fucked up by not telling me sooner I trust his stupid ass.”

Stiles almost fell off the chair at Derek’s admission. His eyes widened and he clenched his hands into fists, he also threw up his emotion barrier before he totally leaked his angst all over the two wolves. Derek knew why she was doing it and had waited for Erica to show up and tell him. He should have damn well known it was for money.

Erica choked on a sob. “Has she sold anything about us?” She asked in a quiet almost broken voice. Stiles finally got up from Derek’s chair and went over to her.

“Not that I’ve uncovered. This is Argent territory so the Theron’s aren’t really welcome here. I thought she might be trying to instigate a war with the wolves so that the Argent’s would ask for help. If the other packs thought one of our pack members had anything to do with the betrayal, then they would come at us from all sides and the Argent’s would need help. But for that to be a theory, I would need to know why in the hell the Theron’s wanted either us or the Argent’s out of the picture, and I just don’t know.” Stiles rubbed Erica’s back as she got her emotions under control. She turned to Stiles.

“I should have known. There was something about her, something that I knew was off, but instead of calling her on it I just let it slide and I kept letting it slide. I knew it was wrong. Stiles I’m sorry can you ever forgive me?”

Stiles almost fell off the couch. “Erica what are you talking about?” She couldn’t know. None of the pack knew except Peter and he was like a vault when it came to secrets. Stiles had made him promise. He knew that when Rachel’s status as a traitor came out it was possible that all the shit she’d been doing would also come out, but he couldn’t afford for that to happen. Derek felt bad enough, if he knew about this, then his guilt would drown him.

Erica looked at him steady and sure, “She hurt you and I didn’t say anything.”

Derek leaped up from the chair and exploded with “Erica explain yourself.” He was vibrating with unchecked agression, and his claws were digging into his palms. Stiles watched blood drip on his hardwood floors. 

Well god damn it. Stiles just barely stopped himself from looking at Derek's face. He knew if Derek knew, he’d be guilty and blame himself. His guilt would be endless. He'd also come to a realization about a month and half into Derek and Rachel’s relationship. He understood that there was no way in hell Derek was ever going to love him back. It burned in his gut the knowledge that he was never going to have Derek, but he'd be damned if he was going to sit by and let that evil bitch destroy what Derek did love.

Peter had told him, after one of his and Rachel's encounters, that Derek wasn’t blind because of Rachel, he was blind because of self loathing. There was something in Derek that believed without question that he would never be good enough for Stiles. Peter had also said that Derek’s self-loathing would kill the relationship before it got serious. So Stiles was absolutely sure Peter had been full of shit. Absolutely sure.

Erica shifted her seat on the couch and looked at her Alpha. Shame written all over her face. “About four months into your relationship……


	4. Erica part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Memories are in italics if that needs to be said, otherwise just for clarification this chapter is in Erica's POV.

Erica: 4 Months Ago

            _Erica giggled as Rachel imitated one of Derek’s super serious expressions. “Then he said and I’m quoting here, ‘you have to be careful Rache, what if I hadn’t been there’, as if I needed him there in the first place. It was barely even a scratch, ridiculous man.” Rachel scoffed. They were currently at the mall trying to find appropriate outfits. Boyd’s parents vow renewal ceremony was Saturday. Stiles had ordered the tuxes for the boys, now it was just up to the ladies to find their formal wear._

_Erica turned to Rachel. “Stiles made sure all of the guys had different color bow ties, what color did he pick out for you and Derek?” She thought he said something about red, but she couldn’t remember. It was more than likely red, but Stiles could be unpredictable sometimes._

_“It hardly matters. I’m not participating in his ridiculous color coordination efforts. Humans are such useless creatures. What does color coordination possibly matter.” Rachel said, her tone heavy with her disdain. Erica flinched a bit. Rachel frequently made disparaging remarks about humans, Stiles in particular tended to draw her ire. Erica had noticed that she made damn sure not to voice her opinions in front of Derek, but when out with Erica she managed to insult Stiles at least every other hour. Erica said nothing but promised herself she’d pass on a batch of homemade cookies to Stiles. Something about Rachel’s words made her feel guilty for not berating the other werewolf._

_They arrived back home each with a sexy new dress and feeling good from a fantastic shopping trip. Erica decided she’d take a nap and headed up the stairs in the Hale house to crash in her room. Sometime later, she rolled out of bed and made her way down the stairs to the kitchen, she was thirsty. Her sleep-muddled brain was her only excuse for not realizing immediately that Stiles was in the kitchen with Rachel._

_Neither one of them looked up at her entrance and so she actually saw the werewolf slam Stiles back into the counter. He didn’t yelp, or squawk, or even make a sound at all as he was usually want to do. He very carefully kept his eyes trained on Rachel. “Let me go.” His voice came out a bit breathy, but that was probably due to the pain that he was experiencing from having his back slammed into a marble counter edge. Stiles eyes were steady and hard as he stared down Rachel, and Erica wondered if he were preparing a spell of some sort to protect himself from Rachel. Erica couldn’t see her face but she could imagine the sneer. Rachel lifted her hands from Stiles arms, and then she shrugged catching sight of Erica in the doorway, clearly not concerned about what the other woman had witnessed. Rachel turned from both of them and sashayed back to the living room._

_Erica wanted to say something, but Stiles just turned back to making dinner and didn’t acknowledge Erica’s presence at all. He’d been putting together a roast of some sort. Rachel must not have hurt him all that badly, thought Erica, if he just continued on with dinner. She ignored the fact that she could smell the blood rising to the surface of his skin, she could smell the bruises, and his hand was shaking as he continued peeling a potato. She said nothing, just backed out of the kitchen and headed back to her room. What went on in the kitchen didn’t really make any sense to her and it didn’t have anything to do with her. It was between Stiles and Rachel._

_If Rachel had hurt him, Stiles would say something. Stiles was a vocal and straight- forward person, he wouldn’t just sit there and let someone hurt him. He also had access to magic, he could have used it to take care of Rachel. There was absolutely no reason for Stiles to remain quiet if something were really going on. She shied away from the thought that Rachel and Stiles were at odds over Derek because that way lay madness._

_When Derek had introduced Rachel to the pack, Stiles had graciously stepped aside. It had shocked everyone, but Stiles hadn’t said a word against either Derek or Rachel. No one really understood why one day it had been Stiles and Derek, and the next Derek had moved on. Surely, what she’d seen in the kitchen was just a miscommunication of some sorts. Stiles would sort it out later, he was damned good at taking care of himself. Her thoughts comforting her, she fell back onto her bed with every intention of sleeping the rest of the night. If she felt a twinge at ignoring the horrific way Rachel had treated Stiles, she let sleep wash away her worries._

Sitting in front of Derek telling him what had gone on was one of the most shameful things she’d ever had to admit to her Alpha. It ranked even worse on the scale than her leaving five years ago. Derek forgave her and Boyd without question over leaving, he understood how fear could overpower the best of intentions. Letting her pack member suffer while she stayed silent was not something he would just brush off without consequence. And, she was entirely honest with herself in believing that she deserved it. Who knows how many times Rachel had come at Stiles? Erica has no idea because she didn’t bother to find out. She’s a shitty beta and an even worse friend.

Derek’s vibrating isn’t calming down, so Stiles puts himself directly in the Alpha’s path. Erica wants tear her hair out at her own idiocy. Stiles was clearly protecting Derek with his silence. He knew he couldn’t let Rachel out of his sight because she was a traitor, and if that were the case any way that she treated him would have to be brushed aside so he could continue investigating her involvement with the Theron’s. She felt tears burn the back of her eyes again. Pack was more important than anything, Pack was family, and she had failed her family spectacularly. Stiles was soothing Derek so she sat quietly while her Alpha reigned in his fury.

Derek sat down on the coffee table in front of her after he regained a measure of control. “You do understand what you did was wrong right, tell me that much at least.”

“Yes, god yes I know. I have no right to….I’m the worst beta, I should have said something. I should have done something. I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, and I understand if you want to throw me out.” The burn overpowered her again and the tears began to fall, she whimpered.

“Derek it’s alright. If I couldn’t handle it I would have come forward. Just stop this, leave Erica alone.” Stiles pleaded.

Derek snapped his eyes back to Stiles, and Erica smelled the misery rolling off of him. “It’s bad enough that I brought her into our family, I exposed you to her; but now my beta is telling me that Rachel abused you and you didn’t trust me enough to side with you over somebody I happened to be fucking. You thought that I would just let it go and chalk it up to you exaggerating. Not only that, my beta thought your abuse was incidental because you obviously didn’t need her. After all, you can take care of yourself. That’s got to be a great feeling, knowing that when it comes down to it your pack isn’t there for you because you can take care of yourself. What about that is alright Stiles? What about that deserves to be left alone?” Derek was furious but more than that, Erica could smell the acrid and bitter scent of hurt.

He turned back to Erica, and she bared her throat in submission. “I’m not going to throw you out, but if you ever, and I do mean ever come across a pack member that has been hurt. You will tell me without question, do you understand me?” Derek’s voice hit the Alpha register and Erica quivered in fear and relief.

“Yes, yes, of course. I will never ever keep quiet about a pack member being hurt, never again.” She felt the pack bond pulse as Derek accepted her submission and her promise. She wiped the tears off of her face and took a deep breath. She looked at Stiles watching them warily. Reaching past Derek to pull Stiles into her arms she whispered into his ear, “I hope you can forgive me for what I did, I know it might take some time, but I’ll be here.” She felt right wrapped around Stiles, hugs from him could take away her pain, so she hoped a hug from her might offer him a bit of comfort as well.

Stiles snorted in her ear. “You’re forgiven, no worries, I understand you had a friend in her that understood you and giving that up is hard. You’re standing here with us now and that’s all that matters.” Stiles said gently.

God what had they ever done to deserve someone as loyal and giving as Stiles. She stepped back and took in her leaders. “I guess we’re telling the others.”

“Yeah, we were afraid that calling a pack meeting would arouse her suspicion because we would have had to ask you guys not to bring her. We’re going with the one on one approach. Boyd and Isaac are next.” Stiles says as he sits down on the couch curling into the corner of the sofa. Derek resumes his seat in the comfy chair, and Erica takes a seat on the floor near Stiles’ legs.

“The one on one thing might raise suspicion as well. You should say we’re planning a surprise party for Lydia since her birthday is coming up. If anyone wants to know why we’re meeting one on one. Rachel doesn’t like humans, so she won’t want to have anything to do with planning a party for Lydia.” Erica says with some bitterness. God how could she have been so stupid.

Stiles sort of bounces on the couch and exclaims, “That’s a great idea Erica. Genius Catwoman, pure genius!” Stiles turns to Derek to demand he text Boyd, and Erica just gapes. Stiles might talk too much, he might be nosy almost to a fault, and he can’t ever just leave well enough alone; but damned if he doesn’t know how to say the exact right thing at the exact right moment. A warmth that she hadn’t felt in months suffused her, and her eyes narrowed on Stiles as he flailed about in front of Derek. There was something she was missing about them, something that connected Stiles to the pack, and it’s like it was staring her in the face but she couldn’t quite grasp hold of it. She leaned her head back against the couch thinking about them and waiting for Boyd to show up.

 


	5. Nothing Phases Boyd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles tells Boyd.

Boyd barely made a sound as he entered the apartment, and Stiles took a minute to appreciate the man in uniform. He’d joined the police academy directly out of high school, and had become an integral part of the Beacon Hills police force. The sheriff said so on multiple occasions. He knew his dad was disappointed that Stiles wasn’t going into law enforcement. He did approve of the criminology part of Stiles’ double major, he just wasn’t so thrilled with the mythology half. After he graduated, Stiles had every intention of starting a detective agency of sorts for the paranormal portion of society. Another thing his dad was not so fond of; but Boyd, he sang the beta’s praises at any given opportunity.

Boyd swung by the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water before settling himself down on Stiles’ comfy couch. “So what’s really going on?”

That’s another thing about Boyd, he was quick on the uptake. Boyd looked in Stiles direction, so he just blurted out “Rachel is working with hunters”.

Derek growled at Stiles in exasperation, “I thought you said if I said that, my beta would punch me in the face.”

            Stiles shrugged displaying not one ounce of concern. “Well if you’d said that to Erica she would have. Boyd appreciates levity and direct approaches to a situation, ergo blunt is the only way to go.”

            Derek rolled his eyes. Boyd leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Do we have proof, please tell me there’s proof.” They’d been in one too many situations in the past where proof was only a secondary thought, so Stiles didn’t blame Boyd one bit for asking.

            Stiles grabbed the much used folder of info and passed it over to Boyd. “Yeah I’ve got some, not enough, but some. Derek also came across some information, which by the way did you happen to bring it with you, or photograph it or in some way, or etch it in your brain so it can be reproduced?” Stiles directed his question toward Derek.

            Derek shifted uncomfortably under Stiles scrutiny and shook his head in the negative. “Wasn’t really thinking long term when I left her place.”

Stiles sighed. Damn. He turned to Boyd and wanted to hug the beta for being so calm and in control. He was reading quietly nodding in places as he looked over the information. Boyd was a rock, and thoroughly dependable in a crisis. “So it appears your taking this rather well all things considered.”

            Boyd shrugged, “Erica seems to be on your side because she hasn’t protested anything you’ve said, and you’ve got enough here to convince me Rachel’s dirty. Do we have any idea what her end game is?” Once again, straight to the point. Boyd was officially his new favorite.

            “No clue at this point. I’ve got some theories, but nothing concrete.” Stiles slumped down on the couch. He really wanted to know what this was all about, and the more he went over it with the pack the more he had begun to realize that this entire situation was infinitely more complex than he’d originally imagined. Traitor werewolves and hunters, man his life sucked sometimes.

            Boyd tossed the folder back on the coffee table. “I’ll poke around at work and see if I can find anything you missed.” Boyd took a swig from his water bottle. “I guess all I can really say is that this makes that training session three months ago make a hell of a lot more sense.” Erica had lifted herself up off the floor and was currently doing her best to snuggle herself into Boyd’s side. He hadn’t even taken his gun belt off though he’d put his weapon on the kitchen table. Stiles winced, there was no way she could be any kind of comfortable. He grabbed one of the blankets from the floor by the couch and tossed it over to them. Erica smiled her appreciation and  stuffed the blanket between Boyd’s belt and her tummy.  

            “What training session?” She asked while Boyd tried to sooth the tension from her shoulders and she attempted to arrange herself comfortably.

            “You know, the one where Isaac got hurt and Derek spent an hour and a half chewing Stiles out.” Boyd shifted and Erica finally found a comfortable position. Derek had leaned forward in his chair.

            “What are you talking about Boyd?” He said with a low growl and Stiles thought, a hint of resignation.

            “Well we were all running around in the front yard, and Isaac picked up his water bottle to take a swig and immediately started choking. We smelled wolfsbane. Deaton examined the bottle and told us there wasn’t enough in it to do real damage, just cause the drinker to be sick for a few hours. Since Stiles was the only human present, and the only human with access to wolfsbane, well you know the rest. Only I knew it wasn’t Stiles. We all knew it wasn’t Stiles. The last thing Stiles would ever do is hurt one of us, even on accident. You eventually figured it was random and that Stiles needed to keep a closer watch on his wolfsbane supplies, but you let it go. I didn’t let it go. It really bugged me that I couldn’t figure out who had dosed his water. I eventually came to the conclusion that it was Rachel.”

            “What! How!, I didn’t have any idea what had happened, and I don’t even like her?” Stiles squawks in consternation, and completely misses the laser look Derek pins him with.

            Boyd laughed and grinned mischievously at Stiles, “Not often I know something you don’t.”

“Hah Hah Hah tell us how you figured it out and why you didn’t say anything?” Stiles demanded.

Boyd nodded, “Okay fine, so it went like this………”

3 Months Ago: Boyd

            _Boyd watched everyone in the pack give Stiles and Derek a wide berth as they continued all but screaming at each other in the front yard. Something was very wrong about this entire situation, and he couldn’t figure out where the missing component was. He went back over to the water bottles and crouched down._

_Over the years, everyone had begun to follow a pretty strict habit for drinks during training. Stiles left his water bottle on the railing of the porch and it always had cartons drawn on it in sharpie; also, he knocked it off at least once every other training session. It was tradition. Scott didn’t use a bottle, he and Allison had those eco-friendly metal container things that they put side by side; because well, it was Scott and Allison. Lydia kept hers in the fridge because she preferred cold water after training. Derek had a cooler full of water bottles for the rest of the pack. Most everyone in the pack drank their water bottles empty on the first go so there weren’t a whole lot of half empty water bottles hanging around. The only pack member who tended to leave leftovers was Isaac. Boyd looked around knowing he was missing something, and yup there it was._

_A half empty bottle had fallen off the porch. He sniffed the lid and shook his head. Rachel. Not really what he suspected, but it was something. The front door was wide open, so Boyd went in looking for Stiles wolfsbane storage area. He pulled the trunk out and opened the lid. There was enough weird shit inside that it was hard to get a good scent from the contents, but finally he picked it out, Rachel had her hand in the trunk recently. So she’s the one who did it, of course his evidence wasn’t conclusive, but it gave him a good foundation._

_She didn’t have a room at the house, she spent most of her time in Derek’s. After finding what he’d found so far, he didn’t feel remotely guilty going in Derek’s room looking around. Well I’ll be damned he thought as he pulled open the medicine cabinet, she’d bought a brand new bottle of ginger paste. It’s what werewolves used to soothe an upset stomach._

_He made his way back outside contemplating what he’d found. Boyd had no way to prove it, but he was near certain she’d poisoned Isaac’s water on accident and had instead wanted her own poisoned. He turned around and watched her. She was tall, but still skimmed just under Derek’s height. She had the werewolf muscle tone, lean and fit, with long dark hair that she kept slightly wavy and free. Standing beside Derek, they made one hell of a couple, but Boyd noticed her looking in Stiles direction with a frown tightening her mouth. And there he had it, she’d wanted to poison herself to gain Derek’s attention and possibly drive a wedge between Stiles and Derek._

_He could understand, jealousy prompted people to do some ridiculously stupid things. Even contemplating Erica being in love with someone else made his hair stand on end and he almost broke out in an anxious sweat. He couldn’t prove it so he decided he’d keep his suspicions to himself, but if he caught her doing anything else that could potentially harm the pack he’d tell Derek. Talking it out with her would more than likely solve the problem. Boyd made his way over to Erica and put his arms around her. She was concerned about Isaac, so he soothed her and watched Derek’s girlfriend with thinly veiled suspicion._

Boyd looked at Derek and Stiles. Derek looked like someone had beat him over the head with a two by four, and Stiles just looked pensive. Par for the course he supposed. Derek was going to have a lot of making up to do as far as Stiles was concerned. Hell if it was even possible to make up for dumping the love of your life so you could have mediocre sex with a werewolf who was a traitor to her own kind. Boyd seriously did not envy his Alpha this mess he’d made.

“Okay so clearly she’s determined if she’s willing to dose herself with wolfsbane to try and turn you against me.” Stiles rubbed his hand over his face. “Why would she care though, it’s not like I was a threat to your relationship.” Stiles stared at the coffee table like it could answer all the unanswered questions he’d ever had, ever.

Boyd knew that Derek had issues with the way he felt for Stiles. He also knew that his Alpha absolutely would not relent and talk to him about the situation. Stiles had no idea, and if Derek had his way, Stiles would never have an idea. That didn’t mean that Derek wouldn’t do everything under the moon to be sure that Stiles was safe. So, to have someone he introduced the pack to attempt to hurt Stiles was something that was going to eat at Derek unless someone got on top of it right now. Boyd couldn’t say anything at the moment without Derek knowing, but he made a mental note to be sure and push Stiles at Derek so he could deal with it now rather than the fallout that would come later if it wasn’t handled.

Boyd shifted Erica a bit to the side so he could pull his phone from his pocket. “So I guess we call Isaac and get him in on the surprise party for Lydia.”

Stiles nodded at him, and Boyd hit 3 on his speed dial. “Hey man.”

“My turn then.” Isaac said.

Boyd frowned at his phone. “Your turn for what?”

“You think I don’t know that you and Erica are at Stiles’ apartment. Obviously, something is going down and they’re trying to keep it quiet. I’ll be there in five.” Isaac hung up before Boyd could say anything else.

“Apparently he’ll be here in five. You know, since he graduated with his counseling degree he seems a hell of a lot more intuitive than he did when we were younger.”

Stiles laughed and they all sat there in companionable silence waiting on Isaac to arrive.


	6. Isaac part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isaac arrives, only he's not as surprised as everyone thinks he should be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a little warning. The story shifts here because each pack member needs to know what's going on, but I thought it would be super boring to have them all told in the same way. Come over, get info, freak out, then talk. Also you will find out what happened with Isaac, but it's in the second half.

Isaac pushed the door open and Stiles couldn’t help the grin that came over his face. He and Isaac had some tough years back in high school because of Scott. In the end, they’d worked it out, and Stiles could honestly say that they were almost on the same level of epic bro-ness that he and Scott shared. Isaac sat where he always did, right on top of the coffee table. It drove Stiles bonkers when they were playing Mario Kart because he liked to sit on the couch, and Isaac liked to lean to his left. It always ended with Isaac on the floor and Stiles sitting on his chest, while Danny and Scott tried not to piss themselves laughing. Maturity was overrated.

Isaac was a counselor for the county. He dealt with a lot of hurt children and women in his line of work, and Stiles could honestly say he’d never seen Isaac happier. It might also have something to do with the epic romance going on between him and Danny, but Stiles figured the dream job didn’t hurt.

“So what’s going down in werewolf town?” Asked Isaac as he pulled his legs up indian style just to watch Stiles glare at him he was sure.

Derek took the lead on this one, “Rachel’s working with hunters.” He didn’t stick out his tongue at Stiles, but Stiles knew that particular eyebrow clench was the equivalent. He stuck his tongue out not caring what the other pack members might think. Who was he to deny Derek’s inner five year old.

Isaac nodded, “that bitch. Well it’s about time. Stiles are you going to fry her with magic or are we going to rip her throat out.”

Stiles gaped. “You’re not even going to ask how we found out or if we have proof?”

“Nope don’t need to, can’t stand her, don’t want her around, so I’d say it’s a win win whatever we decide to do.” Isaac shrugged unconcerned.

Stiles narrowed his eyes on the beta. Something was up. Isaac wouldn’t turn on someone or behave like this about someone if they hadn’t given him just cause. “Isaac did she hurt you, has she ever come after you?” Stiles said with his very own werewolf imitation growl. Derek had already got up from his chair and moved over to sit right beside Stiles so they could both gauge Isaac’s reaction. Isaac tried arching his brow, he didn’t have Stiles’ skill with it, but he got his point across.

“You know better Stiles, I don’t let people hurt me without telling someone.” His pointed look was all Stiles needed to understand that Isaac had seen Rachel do something to him. He couldn’t recall a specific moment that Isaac may have seen, but the beta wasn’t saying anything so maybe they could pass this off without Derek finding out.

“Good, that’s good. Okay well if you are curious there’s this folder…” Stiles trailed off as he got a good long look at Derek’s face. The man was going to have an aneurysm, he was going to give himself a heart attack. The fury ripping across his face could only be doing bad things to his blood pressure. Werewolf or not.

“Isaac, tell me everything you saw, every detail.” Derek’s voice was barely audible, over the ringing in Stiles’ ear. Derek didn’t need to know about anything else that Rachel had done. It would only hurt him. It would only hurt the both of them.

“Derek, it’s not my story to tell. As a counselor I understand that if Stiles wanted you to know, if he had wanted anyone to know, he would have said something. I made absolutely sure he was never alone with her again while at the house, but until he’s ready to come forward and talk about it, then we can’t force him.” Isaac used his most calm and soothing voice to defend Stiles right to privacy.  “I trust Stiles to do what’s right. He's not a victim Derek, none of us are. And if Stiles chose to keep this from us it has nothing to do with Rachel hurting him.” Isaac looked at everyone in the room, “And if I’m not mistaken we’re all going to need to sit down and talk when this is over about boundaries and trust.”

Derek apparently wasn’t having it, he stood from the couch and roared. He alpha roared in Stiles’ apartment. Stiles jumped up with every intention of knocking him back on the couch, “Derek you can’t do that in my apartment. Someone is going to call the cops, my dad, will you please calm down.” Derek wasn’t listening to him though. He picked Stiles up by grasping both of his arms gently, and turned to Boyd saying, “Hold him.” He turned back to Isaac who was baring the hell out of his throat in submission. It wasn’t often that Derek did this anymore, he rarely ever let his control slip.

“Boyd let me go, stop him. He’s going crazy.” Stiles squirmed and struggled, but Boyd wasn’t budging. He couldn’t hear a word that Derek or Isaac were saying. What the hell had Isaac seen?

“He’s an idiot, but he’s not going to hurt Isaac. He just wants to torture himself with more information about how the bitch hurt you.” Stiles winced and settled down. Derek now had Isaac standing before him nodding frantically so his Alpha would back off. Derek hadn’t laid a hand on him, but he apparently told Derek everything he’d wanted to know. Stiles was desperately trying to remember what Isaac could have seen, but to be honest it could have been any number of things over the past six months. Rachel hadn’t exactly been a Disney princess when dealing with Stiles.

Derek looked like he was finished with Isaac because Isaac was sitting on the coffee table his head hung in shame. Stiles finally got Boyd to turn him loose, and he went over to Derek. Derek was doing a breathing exercise his therapist had introduced him too. Once he completed the breathing cycle he turned to Stiles. “Come with me.”

Derek grasped his arm lightly and led him to the bathroom at the back of the apartment. Derek shut the door and indicated that Stiles should sit down on the toilet, he then turned on the shower and the bathroom sink. “You know that’s not really going to drown out anything you say.”

Derek didn’t bother to respond, he just shrugged. Then he sat down on the floor directly in front of Stiles and folded his legs, he looked up and said, “You need to talk to me.” Stiles pressed his knees together tightly and clenched his fists. There was a burn in his gut when Derek focused all of his attention directly on him. Most of the time they were fighting so he could just expel the burn through his anger, but when he got like this it was everything Stiles could do to keep his hands to himself and his body under control. He cast the emotional blocking spell, and Derek’s eyes narrowed.

He took a deep breath, seemingly in an attempt to control his temper. “I’m not going to tell you to turn it off because I understand that me knowing what you feel makes you uncomfortable and vulnerable, but if you’re not going to let me sense it then you are by god going to tell me.” His voice was firm, he meant business and Stiles wasn’t getting out of this bathroom before he told Derek something.

“I don’t know what to say.” Stiles said hesitantly.

Derek took his clenched fists and wrapped his warm hands around Stiles’. He massaged Stiles’ wrists until his hands unclenched and then he brought them up so Stiles could grip Derek’s shoulders just beside his neck. They were staring at each other with an intensity that burned right through Stiles. “You will tell me the truth because you are important to this pack, you matter and I’m not going to let what she’s done hurt you anymore.”

Stiles nodded his head already fighting the burn behind his eyes. “I’m not sure what Isaac told you, but she didn’t hurt me often. It wasn’t a regular thing, just occasionally. I promise Derek, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. You’re blowing this way out of proportion.” He said it quietly but firmly.

Derek didn’t flinch away, he didn’t take his eyes from Stiles’ face. “Once was enough Stiles. I don’t know what I can do to make you trust me again, but from this point forward no matter what happens I will find a way. I need to be sure that if anyone hurts you that you’ll come to me, that you won’t second guess yourself and you’ll believe that I’ll help you without question.”

Stiles body shook, his hands jerked, but Derek’s hands kept them in place. His head was swinging back and forth frantically, “No Derek, God, No. I do trust you. I do. I knew that if I came to you that you’d stop her, that you’d help. I knew that. I never ever ever thought you’d think I was lying. You would protect me no matter what.” His voice had risen an octave and he was desperate to make Derek understand.

Derek’s beautiful face crumpled in confusion and hurt. “Then why, Stiles why would you let her hurt you and not tell me?” He sounded so hurt, that Stiles couldn’t stand it anymore.

“It was never about me telling you or not telling you. Can’t you understand, I was never worried about me Derek, pain is fleeting and very much worth the payout if I can keep others safe. At first, I thought she just didn’t like humans and so I steered clear of her. Then I thought she wanted to get rid of me because I could tell you what a bitch she was. It was maybe a month or so after you started dating that I finally saw it, she watched me like a paranoid cop. That was when I realized that she’s never been around a human she couldn’t read before.”

Stiles pulled his hands back and Derek let him go. He ran his fingers through his hair and put his elbows on his knees. This put him closer to Derek’s face. “You were never supposed to find out that she had hurt me. I knew it would upset you, but I had to know what she was up to. I make her extremely nervous, and I needed to know why. Me getting hurt, the crap she said to me, it’s a small price to pay to protect the ones I love. I knew she wouldn’t kill me outright, and I had Peter backing me up.” He looked at Derek, and saw that he was trying to work through what Stiles had said. “I never imagined I’d find what I did, and despite it all I saw the way you looked at her.”

Derek dropped his head onto Stiles knees and wrapped his arms around Stiles legs. Stiles took a calming breath and put his hands in Derek’s hair, stroking it back. “I thought you might want a family, and I wasn’t going to screw that up because I couldn’t handle a little hazing. I thought I’d wait it out, and see what her deal was.” Stiles hand was resting on the back of Derek’s neck, and he squeezed a bit to comfort him.

Derek turned his head to the side, “You are my fucking family, I don’t need anyone else.”

Stiles scoffed, “If you didn’t need anyone else why the hell did you start dating her in the first place.” The bitterness was clear in his tone, and his hand tightened uncomfortably on Derek’s neck.

“I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought I was doing what was best, and we see how spectacularly that turned out.” Stiles continued stroking Derek’s hair, and wondered how in the hell they had gotten to this point.

“Derek, why did you think it was the right thing?” Stiles asked softly.

Derek hid his face and his voice was muffled, but Stiles still understood every word. “You don’t trust me. You say you do but you don’t. Every time you even start to feel something, you throw that fucking barrier spell up and shut down on me. I thought I needed to step back, let you come to me, stupid damned therapist agreed with me. Then I got this idea that maybe, if I did well in a relationship with someone else, you would see that I was dependable and trustworthy, and you would want to be with me because I would keep you safe.”

Stiles gaped. His mouth was wide open and he was gaping. Of all the stupid, his life ladies and gentleman, his life. Stiles clenched his fists. He bit his tongue and tried, but there was no way he was letting this go. Anger the likes of which he hadn’t felt in a long time boiled his blood. “You’re telling me that you pulled away from me and started banging the first werewolf bitch you came across because you weren’t aware that I’m completely in love with you.” Derek had jerked back when Stiles started to growl, by the end he was standing directly in front of stiles cringing. “Instead of talking to me about this like we are right now, you threw away everything we’d been building so you could teach me a lesson, give me a visual of what it’s like when you’re with someone else.” Stiles was practically screaming, and he could feel himself trembling.

“Stiles calm down.” Derek tried for soothing, but all Stiles heard was patronizing. He grabbed the first thing that came to his hand, oh goody a bar of soap. He threw it at Derek’s face, stupid werewolf probably didn’t even feel it, but it made Stiles feel better, so he picked up his mouthwash and threw that too. Derek ducked as the mouthwash bottle came flying at his head, but didn’t manage to dodge the hair brush that followed it. “Seriously Stiles, you need to calm down.”

“Calm, I’m calm, I’m not devising ways to burry your ass in a 12 foot pit of wolvesbane. Nope not what I’m doing. At. All.” He picked up the soap dish next prepared to sacrifice the little plastic dish for a good cause. Derek had apparently had enough of Stiles missile attacks, and crossed the bathroom to hold onto Stiles’ hands so he couldn’t do any damage.

“I hate your face so fucking much right now, there are no words.” Stiles couldn’t help his petulance, and he wanted more things to beat the hell out of Derek with. He wanted answers. He wanted, damnit, he wanted Derek. He wanted him so badly, and to think that this could have all been avoided with some conversation made him want to cry. Angry was the only way he could manage to deal with this, or he’d be sobbing on the tile floor beneath his feet. “So let’s get this all out on the table. Did you think we were dating?”

Derek looked at him confused, “Of course we were, everyone in the pack thought so as well.”

Stiles wanted to scream his frustration. He wanted to throw things, and break things, and rip things to shreds. Never in his life had he wished he were a werewolf more than he did in this moment. He could have clawed down a whole building and still not have been satisfied. “And you thought, ‘well lets break up with Stiles by going over to his house and letting him know that I’ve met someone new, and then, THEN, I’ll break it to the whole pack while Stiles is standing right beside my new girlfriend’; perfect plan.”

Derek gaped back at him. “What the hell are you talking about Stiles? Are you conveniently forgetting Valentines day. Damnit Stiles I was trying to get you to talk to me then, I was trying to make you see how good we were together, and you completely shut me out. You left, and you didn’t fucking come back for over a month and a half.”

Stiles could feel the anxiety eating at his insides, he gulped in air and tried to grab ahold of his emotional anchor. “I need a minute.” He said while doing his best to relax. “I just need a minute.” Stiles put both hands on the sink and leaned forward. He dipped his head and concentrated on trying to remember Valentines’ day.  

            Meanwhile back in the living room…..


	7. Isaac pt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is from Isaac's point of view.

Isaac flopped down on the couch after Derek walked Stiles back to the bathroom. He heard the water come on and grinned. At least they were attempting to talk, he was so proud. Boyd and Erica sat down beside him on the couch and they turned the TV on to help drown out Derek and Stiles. As much as they all wanted to know what was going on, they understood that privacy was something sacred. It was hard to get any privacy at all as a werewolf, so they tried to help out when they could. Isaac cuddled into Erica’s side and resisted the urge to call Danny. He’d do it after he got home.

“So Isaac, what happened between Stiles and Rachel?” Boyd asked. Isaac looked over at Boyd and shrugged.

“I’m not absolutely certain what was going on because I walked past the window of the living room after it had already started, but she had him pinned to the wall with her claws wrapped around his throat.”

He saw Erica’s eyes widen and Boyd’s eyes flashed. The protective instinct ran deep and constant in werewolves. It helped strengthen pack bonds, but sometimes it caused more problems than it solved. If Boyd and Erica ever had a baby, they would have to go to war with their werewolf sides just so the kid could leave the house. Anyway, Isaac settled his mind and brought back the day he’d seen Rachel threaten Stiles.

Isaac: 3 Weeks After the First Date

_Isaac came out of the woods with a blissful sigh. A midafternoon romp through the woods was just what he needed. The state had taken over custody of three little boys when it was discovered their father was an alcoholic and he’d taken to using the boys as punching bags. It had been a little too much for Isaac, bringing back memories of his father and his brother. So he’d ducked out of the office in the hopes that he could get his emotions sorted out with a run. He felt great and positive, he’d go back to the office and make sure those kids got the best damn care he could possibly give them._

_It was a joke amongst the pack that Scott took care of the stray dogs and Isaac took care of the stray kids, and that between the both of them their species was covered. Isaac couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten and how much of that luck he owed to the pack. He hadn’t said anything yet, but he was looking at grad schools in the area. He wanted to go back to school and become a licensed psychologist. The counseling was wonderful, and he was learning so much already, but he felt like he could do an even better job professionally if he was better educated. Danny would jump for joy, he’s the one who had started dropping pamphlets around the house trying in his own way to be subtle._

_The Hale house had been rebuilt in their senior year and it looked spectacular sitting out in the woods with the sun shinning down. Isaac took a moment to appreciate the fantastic job Derek had done on the place. It looked like a model home from Better Homes and Gardens. The pack had all come together to help decorate the house, and Isaac always felt at peace when he walked through the front doors surrounded by pack. He stepped up onto the porch, and his senses heightened. What in the hell, had he just heard Stiles yelp?_

_Instead of barreling through the front door, he chose to stifle his breathing and walk as quietly as he was able to the living room window. Rachel, Derek’s new girlfriend (and seriously who had seen that coming, not Isaac), had Stiles pinned to the wall. Her claws were out and wrapped around Stiles’s slim throat. It took every ounce of control Isaac possessed not to bust through the window and take the bitch down. He was afraid that if he startled her, her claws would hurt Stiles so he clenched his muscles and commanded his body to stand down._

_He put his hand on the window and lifted it just a bit, he’d climb in and take her from behind. Opening the window brought a heavy dose of Stiles scent, and Isaac looked up at him puzzled. Stiles wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t even remotely afraid. His heartbeat, now that Isaac took the time to listen, was steady as, wellllll as steady as Stiles’ heartbeat ever was. What in the hell was going on?_

_She’d just been growling when Isaac walked up to the window, but now he could hear that she was talking to Stiles. “Humans don’t belong in packs. You’re liabilities, worthless wastes of space. How Derek can stand having so many of you around I’ll never understand.” Isaac watched Stiles face. There wasn’t a single indication that he was worried. Rachel might think he was because Stiles heart did beat faster than most, but Isaac knew, now that his werewolf brain had calmed down, that if Stiles didn’t want to be pressed up against the wall he wouldn’t be._

_There was a bracelet on his arm that he never removed, it contained small pouches of mountain ash and wolvesbane respectively. Stiles was magic, he didn’t need a whole lot of either one of the substances to work enough magic to protect himself. He could have also just electrocuted the bitch. So, if Stiles was letting her press him up against the wall, then he had a good reason for it. Isaac watched Stiles face. His warm brown eyes were hard and cold, they were studying the other werewolf. That’s when it dawned on Isaac, Stiles suspected her of something so he was doing that thing, that thing that made werewolves underestimate him and other people think he was a halfwit. Well hell. Isaac stayed at the window just in case, but Stiles had everything under control._

_She was obviously hurting him, and a part of Isaac wanted to howl and rip her in half for it, but if Stiles thought there was a good enough reason to let her then he would follow his lead. Isaac knew Stiles was smart, and he knew that there wasn’t a whole lot that Stiles did that wasn’t a calculated manipulation on his part. The only area he seemed to lose all sense was when it came to Derek. If he applied half the brain, he used to figure the rest of the world out, to himself he’d have had Derek the minute he turned 18. Isaac watched her slam Stiles back against the wall and thought it might be about time to step in, but she turned Stiles lose and walked out of the room._

_All he could think as he watched Stiles watch the wolf walk away with a smirk on his face, was that if Derek ever found out what she’d done, he was going to be so pissed. Like so beyond pissed._

“And, that’s all I saw. She didn’t let up with the humans are worthless jargon, but she didn’t take it beyond trying to intimidate Stiles with her claws wrapped around his throat.” Isaac shrugged. “What about you guys, clearly you both saw something that upset Derek enough that he’s trying to have a private chat with Stiles in his bathroom, of all places.”

Boyd and Erica relayed everything that had gone down before Isaac arrived, and he almost growled when he found out she’d been the one to poison him. If he hadn’t liked her before, he hated her now. That had been one of the most uncomfortable three hours he’d ever endured. He flipped through the file folder Stiles had left on the table, and came to two conclusions. First of all, “She’s not just doing this for money.” He blurted out.

Boyd shifted clearly interested in Isaac’s theory. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s strategic. This is assuming that we have all the information from the packs she’s tried to infiltrate, and I’ll need Lydia, Stiles, and Danny to go over it to make sure I’m right, but look.” He laid the map that Stiles had been working on down on the coffee table. Stiles had marked the location of each pack. “From what Stiles has here, all of the packs she’s gone after have moved. This territory is completely empty now if I’m right. She’s doing this to establish territory right beside ours I think.”

Isaac, Boyd and Erica looked at one another remembering the Alpha pack and the hell they had rained down on Beacon Hills. “So what you think she’s been playing the omega to study our weakness and she’s working with the Theron’s so that her pack will have an ally against the Argent’s.” Boyd questioned.

“It seems the most likely supposition. If we get the others in on it maybe we can get enough information together as a pack that Derek and Stiles can just work on them instead of having to worry about this.” Isaac said his voice optimistic.

“Derek’s not going to like it, he’s going to want to know if the rest of the pack has seen anything involving Rachel and Stiles.” Erica interjected.

Isaac nodded, “Yeah probably, but whatever stress we can take off of them right now I think can only be a good thing.” The second conclusion he’d come to after reading the folder was that against all odds, no matter what obstacles were thrown in their way, before the year was over Stiles and Derek were going to be together. Period. “Think about it guys, if this goes right they’ll finally both have their heads out of their asses and be together. We’ll have pack gatherings without all the awkward tension, and the pack bond will smooth out so they both don’t look like they’re tied in knots all the time.”

“I really thought Allison’s big Valentines Day plan was going to work. It was foolproof.” Erica bitched.

“Ha nothing is foolproof with them.” Isaac claims. “They both don’t want to be hurt or do the hurting in their relationship that they dance around each other waiting. And waiting. Stiles thinks if he ignores a problem enough that it will eventually go away, and Derek thinks that things will work out or they won’t no matter what he does or doesn’t do. They’re infuriating.”

Boyd nods in agreement with Erica. “Should we get Lydia, Jackson, Scott, and Allison together so we can break the news to them, or do we wait on Derek and Stiles?”

Isaac thought about it for a minute. “If we go get them it’s possible that they could know things, in which case we’re just going to have to repeat everything again for Derek and Stiles. How about we go grab some food while the parents are sorting themselves out in the bathroom, and when we get back we can break it to the rest of the pack.”

“I like that plan, that is a solid A+ plan because after my self-defense classes this morning I am starving.” Erica complained.

“How is that going by the way, did that one guy finally take the hint.” Isaac smiled at Erica his warm puppy eyes mocking her. She and Boyd owned the local gym, and Erica was an instructor. She taught basic hand to hand and self-defense, she also taught the occasional Yoga class or Tae Kwan Do. It was an outlet for her energy and something she really enjoyed, especially the classes teaching people how to protect themselves. The only problem was that Erica was hot, she knew she was hot, everyone knew she was hot, and sometimes members of the class were under the assumption that just because she was hot, didn’t mean she wouldn’t body slam them for instructional purposes. Isaac got a kick out of her stories.

“Oh he’s fine now, I do think he believes me now when I tell him if he even thinks about bad touching me I’ll put my fist through his throat.” Isaac laughed and Boyd smirked, and they walked out of the apartment headed toward the closest pizza place.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek rehashes Valentines Day with Stiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow so I had an unexpected real life problem O.O There was a bad storm here that knocked out like half the cities electricity. My mom drug me to my aunt's house and we just got back today. She doesn't have the internet which was horrible, but bright side is I got most of the story edited and finished up. I'll post it all now :) And again I don't have a beta so any and all mistakes are totally mine sorry!

Derek sat down on the floor again once he realized that Stiles wasn’t going to continue throwing shit at him. They really needed to focus on relaying the news about Rachel to his pack, but he couldn’t just stand by anymore without knowing why Stiles had been hiding how Rachel was treating him. It was tearing him up. Stiles explanation wasn’t really any comfort to him at all. Somewhere along the way they’d lost each other, and they couldn’t find their way back.

Stiles stood at the sink, and although Derek had no idea what he was feeling he knew that whatever it was, was hurting him. He looked just a little bit broken, and the douchebag part of Derek that sat on his shoulder and loved to mock every decision he made, was insisting that it was Derek’s fault. He tilted his head back against the wall, and tried to figure out exactly how he’d let it come to this.

Stiles was such a complex person. Derek never really had a clue what was going on in his head, unless it involved the pack and keeping them safe. Then Stiles was on point, focused, he didn’t care about anything but making sure everyone in the pack was safe and sound. Is it really any wonder that Derek had fallen so damned hard for him. It was difficult though, Stiles didn’t like feeling vulnerable. It had started out because he was human, and the pack wanted him kept safe so they started shutting him out. It soon became apparent that Stiles would never allow that, so they started over protecting him. Isaac and Scott had probably been the worst. Derek had watched Stiles try and handle it, but when he’d found that emotional blocking spell, he used it as a shield between him and the pack. He hid behind it because he was afraid if they knew how he really felt, they’d react badly. If they knew he was afraid, it could distract them from whatever evil they might be facing. Derek couldn’t read him because the magic got in the way, but he was almost certain there was a point in the pack’s senior year when Stiles had actively hated Isaac.

So, when Derek had started having feelings for Stiles he didn’t really know what to do about it. They’d fallen together so comfortably as the only single pair in the pack. He’d worried that it was just proximity to Stiles that made him like him, but his therapist helped him work out his feelings. He’d made lists of reasons why he liked Stiles, it was pretty ridiculous what all he’d put down. The way Stiles chewed on his hoody sleeves was something that drove Derek mad, but if he was in a T-shirt and resting his bare arms on a table he invariably wound up with his wrist in his mouth at some point. He’d just rest it there, and Derek would have to leave the room because he was so hard he could barely contain himself.

Stiles had gone off to college, but he came home almost every weekend and he did come home every break. It was hard not being able to see him whenever he wanted, but if it got too bad he’d drive up to the college and take Stiles out to lunch. He’d tried a couple of times to make their relationship physical, but Stiles always ducked away from him and ran before anything could happen. Derek had finally chalked it up to Stiles being nervous because he didn’t want to disrupt the pack dynamics, so Derek had stopped trying. He’d went over his plan to back off with his therapist and she said that sounded like a good idea. Let Stiles come to you. And he’d tried. He’d tried really hard, but Valentine’s Day was coming up and he didn’t want Stiles to feel alone, and he didn’t want to be alone. So he called Allison.

Their relationship had gone from worse to even more worse while the kids were in high school, but with most of the pack off at college, Allison had stuck around Beacon Hills. She was learning the ropes so to speak, keeping her father’s business in line. The fourth or fifth time they’d wound up patrolling together, he’d come to realize that she was hurting just like he was because Scott was away. After that, he made sure to have dinner with her every other day so she could talk about Scott with him, and she let him talk about Stiles. And eventually any animosity that they had felt for one another melted away in the face of how much they loved Scott and Stiles. When he called her about Valentines Day, she told him he needed to go all out. If he didn’t Stiles would just brush it off as them being together because everyone else was busy doing the Valentine’s Day date thing.

Derek followed her advice.  

Derek: February, two and half months before he began dating Rachel.

_His palms were sweating, and he nervously looked around the house. The lights had been turned off in favor of the lamps he had bracketing the couch. He had a torchiere in the kitchen that had a soft light bulb in it. On the table he’d set two places and lit the red candles Allison had dropped off earlier. Stiles was walking up the stairs and almost at the door. Derek wanted everything to be perfect, and he was afraid this night was going to be a disaster. He’d been single for over a decade and he wanted to do this right. He’d never gone out on a date, not a real one with the intention of keeping the other person around because he’d never had someone he wanted to keep. Not since Kate, and even then he’d been too young to have a mature relationship. He shook his head to clear his thoughts._

_The minute Stiles walked through the door he cast the emotional barrier spell, and Derek tried his damndest not to be hurt by it. He knew that Stiles only did it to protect himself from feeling vulnerable, but it made him feel like a blind man wandering around a room with nothing in it. Derek motioned for him to sit down at the table, and went into the kitchen to grab dinner. He came back out and Stiles was looking flabbergasted. That did not bode well for the evening._

_“Jeezus Derek, what is all this?” He asked while flailing at the table and then the room in general._

_“Well I thought we’d have dinner and then watch a movie, why is something wrong?” He looked around again and he couldn’t see anything out of place. He’d turned on soft classical jazz like Allison suggested, he had the white table cloth on the table and the candles were casting a soft glow on Stiles remarkably beautiful face. He put Stiles plate in front of him and then Derek sat himself down across from him._

_Stiles took one look at his food and burst out laughing. Derek felt his gut clench. “Oh my god Derek, really, curly fries and a cheese burger. I was expecting lobster from the way you had this table decked out, thank god.” Stiles picked up some of the fries and shoved them in his face._

_Derek could already feel the night getting away from him. He’d made Stiles’ favorite foods because Allison had badgered him until he relented. He knew he needed her because this was not how werewolves dated. If he’d chosen another werewolf they’d be running through the woods chasing game and howling at the moon. So listening to Allison was his only hope of surviving this night, still he knew he should have gone with the French style carbonara. Really Stiles would eat anything, his favorites really didn’t set the whole romantic vibe Derek had been shooting for; but, Allison had persisted, she said that anything over the top foodwise would make him uncomfortable, and he definitely needed Stiles comfortable for the duration of the evening. He shrugged his shoulders and got back to eating. He talked about Allison and Scott and how he was pretty sure Scott was going to pop the question, and soon. They talked about the Sheriff, and Stiles desire to see him settled down and happy again even though he didn’t think he ever would._

_Derek wanted to ask him where he thought their relationship was going, but he backed off figuring it might be a little too heavy for the beginning of the night. He’d ask when they were sitting on the sofa cuddled together, there was also the added bonus that maybe if he didn’t have to look directly at Stiles’ face he could get the words out easier._

_  
They finished eating and Derek told Stiles not to worry about the dishes, that he’d take care of it tomorrow. He motioned for Stiles to take a seat on the couch while he blew out the candles and turned off the music. He made his way into the living room and put the movie on. Derek made sure to sit down close enough to Stiles to be in his immediate space, and didn’t hesitate to put his arm around him. Stiles got comfortable and put his head on Derek’s chest. The movie started, but he didn’t say anything just snuggled closer and kept quiet._

_They sat there beside one another, and Derek could feel the tension in his body. Stiles was a warm weight at his side, and he could feel the ghost of his breath tickling against his chest. The anticipation brought goose bumps to his arms. He slowly began drawing his hand up and down Stiles arm, hoping the motion would soothe any nerves that Stiles might be experiencing. Stiles tilted his head up so he could look at Derek and said with a muffled sleepy voice, “Derek, do we really have to watch the movie?”_

_Derek grinned, “Only if you want to.”_

_Stiles stroked his palm across Derek’s chest. “Don’t wanna.” Derek used his free hand to stroke Stiles’ cheek, he brought their mouths together in a gentle but firm tug. Inside him, the wolf was howling at him to rip every barrier that stood between them, away. Stiles lips were soft, they parted easily under Derek’s insistent tongue. Derek’s heart was about to beat out of his chest, as he very slowly and deliberately took Stiles bottom lip between his teeth biting into the soft flesh just enough. Stiles moaned, and that was all it took for Derek to lose himself in the passion of finally having Stiles exactly where he wanted him._

_Their kiss turned frantic, tongues warring, teeth scraping, and bodies squeezed as tightly as the other could manage. Stiles hands were everywhere, and Derek wanted to devour him whole. Stiles shoved his hands under Derek’s shirt, and started tugging it up to get it off. When the cold air hit Derek’s back, he snapped out of his all consuming haze of desire. Damn it all to hell, they needed to talk. This night was about sorting things out, not about getting into Stiles pants for the first time. It took everything Derek had in him to pull back from their heated embrace. “Stiles, no we need to stop.”_

_“No stopping, more kissing.” Stiles tried to bring himself up to latch back onto Derek’s mouth, but Derek kept a hand on his chest pinning him down._

_“Need to stop.” Derek enunciated. Stiles threw his arms around Derek’s shoulders and kissed him frantically. Derek tore his mouth away. “Stop it, the pack could, we need to.” Derek couldn’t really form a coherent sentence because his body was fighting against him. It felt like his wolf wanted to claw its way out from his insides. He needed to focus, but with Stiles pressed so intimately against him he was having a difficult time._

_Stiles whiskey colored eyes went wide with shock. He shook his head and jerked back from Derek. “Dude, you can’t be serious right now.” Stiles scrambled off the couch taking himself across the room. “Of course you’re serious, of course this would happen.” Stiles rubbed his palms across his face._

_Derek was confused. What the hell was Stiles talking about. “Come back over here and sit down, we need to talk.” Derek’s voice came out a little sharper than he liked, but he needed Stiles to understand, he needed to understand himself, before they ripped each others clothes off and had gloriously wonderful sex._

_Derek still couldn’t get a read on Stiles so he had no idea why he was standing half way across the room looking like Derek had crushed all of his hopes and dreams. Stiles grabbed his hoodie from the hook on the wall by the door and turned his back walking out of Derek’s apartment without a backwards glance._

_Derek was stunned, he was beyond stunned. Something inside of him crumpled. What in the name of hell had just happened. Why had he walked out? Derek tried to remember exactly what he’d said, but he was so confused. Stiles had given every indication he was on board with where things were going, but the minute Derek tried to slow things down so he could talk, Stiles runs away. What had he meant by “of course this would happen.” Derek stood from the couch with every intention of chasing Stiles down before he could get to his jeep, but half way to the door Derek stopped._

_Had he just imagined Stiles’ response to him, what if Stiles hadn’t really wanted him? With that fucking spell in place, Derek didn’t have a clue; he couldn’t get a scent off of Stiles at all. He sat down on his coffee table and went over every minute of their time together._

_He shook his head no closer to an answer, got up and went to find his phone. He called five times and five times Stiles let it go straight to voicemail. He texted him, but if he wasn’t answering it was just as likely he wouldn’t respond to texts either. Stiles was living on campus at the moment, and Derek could just show up at his dorm, but they would have absolutely no privacy to discuss what had just happened. With the way Stiles just got up and left and wasn’t answering his phone, Derek was sure showing up at his dorm room would just acerbate the problem. He’d try again tomorrow, if Stiles would just talk to him he was sure they could work this out._

 

Derek had relayed the events of the day to the best of his recollection. “You didn’t come home for a month and a half, and you didn’t speak to me directly for almost two.” Derek said quietly to Stiles’ back.  They were still in the bathroom, and Derek felt a spark of something in his gut indicating he was finally going to get some answers.

Stiles stepped away from the sink and dropped to the floor beside Derek. “You told me, that day in my bedroom when you came to tell me about Rachel, you said there was something about her.” Stiles turned his head to watch Derek, and he saw him wince.

“Stiles, I was pissed off at you. I was more pissed off at you than I’ve ever been in my life because you shut me out. You turned around and walked away without so much as a ‘see you later’. When I met Rachel she was the exact opposite of you. Easy and open about her emotions, and I knew she wanted me. I didn’t have to guess. So I guess I let myself be blindsided by that because I was mad.”

“Do you love her?” Stiles asked with a certain amount of trepidation.

“Of course not.” Derek scoffed as if that had ever even been an option.

Stiles nodded. “I left because I was afraid. Terrified actually. You stopped and then you were talking about the pack. I thought that you were about to tell me it had been a terrible mistake, and you didn’t want the pack to find out. You’d set it up like we were mocking Valentine’s day, decking out the table and then putting on the good music, but you made curly fries. I thought we were just hanging out because everyone else was out.” Stiles took a deep breath and sighed. “I never imagined you’d want me there for anything else. I thought that you thought the kiss was a mistake, and I couldn’t bear to stand there and listen to you say that about the most amazing thing I’d ever felt in my life.”

“We’re a pair of idiots.” Derek laughed because he was desperately trying to keep himself in check.

“Yeah you don’t even know the half of it. That day you came over to talk to me about Rachel, I’d decided it was time we got everything out on the table. I was going to ask you out.” Stiles said with a smirk. “Just imagine, we were a hairs breath away from avoiding this whole disaster.”

“What do we do now?” Derek asked.

“Well the first thing we’re going to do is promise to never, ever, ever, stop talking to each other. As horrible as this has all been, just talking it out with you is making me feel a million times better.” Stiles smiled at Derek’s frantic nodding. “Second, lets get out of the damned bathroom. It’s starting to irritate me.”

Derek grinned and pulled Stiles up with him as he rose from the floor. They made their way out into the living room, and Stiles gave him a questioning look. “They went to grab some food.” Stiles threw himself down on his couch, and Derek followed close behind.

“So where did we go wrong, besides not talking to each other. I think that was the major problem, but what else?” Derek pulled Stiles close and wrapped his arms around him so that they were cuddled into each other’s warmth on the couch.

“Around you my senses get confused. Spending as much time with me as you did, well for a werewolf that’s pretty much declaring your intentions. It was just that everytime I tried to initiate something more intimate, I felt you shy away from me. I felt you backing off and I didn’t know what to do.”

Stiles turned his face up so he could watch Derek. “I guess my emotion spell has given us both a serious education. So not only were we miscommunicating with words, but also body language. Man we suck so bad. We should get an award for most ridiculous couple ever.”

“So we’re a couple now?” Derek asks with a sardonic lift of his brow.

Stiles rolls his eyes, “turn your eyebrows off mister grumpy. I think it’s safe to say your traitor of a girlfriend is now definitely your ex-traitor girlfriend. As for us, we’re exactly where we need to be, and when all of this is over we’ll definitely talk more about us. How does that sound?”

“Sounds just about perfect.” Derek said as he leaned forward to press his mouth against Stiles’. And really, with Stiles’ sitting comfortable and willing in his arms, can anyone blame him for missing the sound of his pack just outside the door.


	9. Lydia comes over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lydia comes over.

Lydia came striding through the door with the pack at her back. They all stopped and gasped in awe. Finally, the time had come. The idiots got their shit together and they could all live happily ever after. Lydia sniffed, but allowed a small spark of pleasure at the thought of the pair growing old and happy together. Stiles flailed, and squawked a bit, but she ignored him in favor of drilling her gaze into Derek.

“So which one of you wants to tell me why I saw the three of them eating together on a Tuesday night?” She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze.

Stiles looked confused for a minute, but then realized the significance of Tuesday. On Tuesdays, the pack almost always spent the evenings paired up at home. It had started because of college classes. Stiles and the gang tended to take all of their classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which gave them Tuesdays and Thursdays off. They’d spend Tuesday evening with their significant others and Thursdays were pack nights. Weekends were for sleeping, parents, and dates. Stiles smirked at her for being so obviously nosey, but turned to Derek. “How bout you blurt it out. I know you want to.”

Derek rolled his eyes in response to Stiles snark. “Rachel is working with hunters.”

Lydia quirked her head to the side, looked down at her shoes, and when her eyes made it back up to the boys sitting on the couch, Stiles could only say he saw evil blazing in their depths. “In what way is she working with hunters.” Lydia snapped flipping her delicious red curls behind her shoulders. Preparing plans to eviscerate one very naughty werewolf.

Stiles explained it as precisely as he was able, and watched Lydia go from pissed off to, Mount Etna is an active volcano pissed. She started pacing the length of Stiles living room, and didn’t pause for breath as she muttered to herself. The rest of the pack had sat down in their various spots. Boyd had taken over Derek’s chair with Erica perched on his lap. Isaac sat on the table, and Jackson sat on the arm of the couch. They were waiting on Lydia’s verdict.

She stopped and put her hands on her hips. “I’ve got a file on her an inch thick back at the office.” She began, but stopped when Stiles began to sputter. “What?” she demanded.

“Why do you have a file on her?” He asked incredulous.

Lydia arched her perfectly groomed brow. “Did you honestly expect me to let some tramp omega date our Alpha without running every sort of background check I could get my hands on?”

Stiles cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes on her, berating his own idiocy in his mind. “So what do you know?”

Lydia started tapping her shoe, and let out a great big sigh. “Obviously not enough if I didn’t know she was working with hunters.” She began pacing again, and Stiles wanted to get up and pace with her. Lydia didn’t always need motion to help her think, but if she did then there was something serious going down. “She’s married. And before you get all pissy about me not saying anything, I had no way of knowing if she was hiding from her husband or if he had ended the relationship and they just hadn’t gotten around to legalizing the divorce. If she had turned out not to be a bitch, which I highly doubted, I didn’t want her focus on me. I found out a lot of unimportant information, and I’ll give you the file tomorrow. We can go over it to see what I missed.” She paused in her pacing once again, and moved over to Jackson’s side.

Stiles settled himself more comfortably against Derek’s side, and said “We’re going to have to confront her. We need to work out a solid plan with how to deal with her, and we also need to let Scott and Allison know what’s going on.”

Lydia snorted, “Allison and Scott are probably ass deep in a bubble bath right now what with it being couples Tuesday. We’ll let them know tomorrow morning, text Scott and tell him you’re making bacon.”

Stiles frowned at her, “who says I want to make bacon.”

“Who says I care what you want.” Lydia replied haughtily.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Fine, looks like I’m making breakfast.”

“Good, now the rest of you get out, Jackson I’ll meet you at home. I need to talk to Stiles, that includes you Derek.” When it looked like the Alpha wasn’t going to follow her orders.

Derek looked at her as if she were crazy, and had just about worked up his nerve to tell her off, when she pointed one perfectly polished nail at his face. “I know for a fact Stiles has nothing of yours in this apartment. Go home, get some clothes, and tell Rachel one of your pack needs you. If she asks tell her Stiles, don’t lie because she’ll know, but you can’t give away that we know. If you do, any plan we come up with is going to go in the toilet. Think you can handle that?” She asked, challenging his competency was an absolute sure way of getting Derek to do whatever you wanted him too. Stiles was impressed as always.

Derek placed a soft quick kiss on Stiles mouth, rose from the couch, and took off to do as Lydia commanded. Stiles got up from the couch and went to the kitchen with Lydia not far behind him. He went for the fridge to rummage around for dinner, “So what’d you want to talk to me about Lyds?” He asked as he pulled out some leftover lasagna.

She perched on one of the kitchen stools that he kept around his bar area. “Her malevolence isn’t directed at the pack.” She stated with direct assurance.

Stiles shoved his lasagna in the microwave and whirled around. “What the hell Lydia, how do you know?”

“When I met her I couldn’t get a good read on her, so I hung around her for a few weeks. It was easy enough with Erica lapping up her every word. It wasn’t until a pack training session that I realized I hadn’t had the opportunity to read her when she was in close proximity to you. When I probed her magically, I realized that she had a malevolence inside her that was directed specifically at you. That’s the real reason I used my government contacts to pick apart her life.” Lydia sighed and put her head down on the table.

            “I’m not going to lie, I thought it was insecure girlfriend bullshit at first. I thought she was intimidated by Derek’s feelings for you, but last week when you were in the bathroom and we were all watching a movie, and Jackson was laying down in one of the spare rooms. We heard her, Jackson and I. We’ve spent the past week trying to break it to both you and Derek. Because when she was in that bathroom with you, she was a hairs breadth away from killing you, I could feel it, the intent to kill was so strong it nearly crippled me. If Jackson hadn’t come out of his room, I can’t be certain she wouldn’t have gone through with it.”

            “You’re telling me this is personal, and it has nothing to do with Derek.” Stiles asked flabbergasted.

            “That’s exactly what I’m saying. So we need to go over her life and what you know carefully, because Isaac had a fantastic idea about the territory issue, but I think we’re going to find that that isn’t even the half of it.”

            Stiles pulled his lasagna from the microwave and wanted to drop his face in it to avoid thinking about the clusterfuck that his life had become.

            “Anyway, enough of that, it looks like you and Derek finally used actual words and those actual words were in the presence of each other.” She smirked evil-ly.

            “You.Are.Evil.” Stiles stated with heavy weight on the Evil.

            Lydia cackled. “But you did though, now it’s all sunshine and rainbows.”

            “Yeah except for the part where his girlfriend apparently wants to eviscerate me.”

            “Like you’ve never overcome worse odds.” She snapped.

            “I hate you.” He snarked.

            “Seriously Stiles talk to me, is everything okay?” She asked concern lacing her words and making Stiles feel the warmth of pack and family.

            “Yeah Lyds everything is fine. We’ve still got some things to work through, like his assumption that he is ever allowed to make decisions again, but mostly we just really need to get this communication thing down. Not talking to each other, misunderstanding one another has led to every single problem we’ve had. It was never about feelings, having them or not having them.”

            Lydia nodded in understanding. “Have you thought about giving up the emotion blocking spell?”

            Stiles looked at her in admiration, sometimes she was entirely too insightful. “Cut right to the point why don’t you.” He sighed. “Yeah I’ve thought about it, I even admitted to Derek that it was a problem, but it’s going to be hard. I feel like if I give it up then I’m putting myself on a one way street to Derek knowing everything, and me having to guess. As it stands we both have to guess.” He sighed again, and started shoveling lasagna in his mouth.

            “You’ll figure it out, but if you don’t then I reserve the right to lock you two in a meat locker until everything is kosher again.” She said derisively while checking her phone. Jackson had probably been texting her.

            Stiles shrugged, “make it the basement at the Hale house, and you have a deal.”

            She huffed at him, but grinned to indicate she was only joking. Her grin dimmed a bit when she began, “I need to get home, Jackson’s probably bitchy already, but Stiles, someone needs to tell Derek what happened last week. In the bathroom I mean. If we don’t tell him he’s just going to find out anyway, and then we’ll all have to deal with his angst.”

            Stiles paused with his fork half way to his mouth. “We can let Jackson tell him.” Lydia nodded her approval, kissed Stiles’ cheek and headed out the door. Stiles finished up his Lasagna and headed for the couch to wait for Derek to get back.


	10. Scott and Allison go on an adventure.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Allison snoop around a warehouse.

“Ugh get your smelly feet out of my face.” Allison whispered with a disgusted frown.

            Scott’s eyes went wide, “shush” he exclaimed, “or she’ll here you.”

            Allison rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure she’s so busy being an absolute psycho that she’s not going to notice me one way or another.” Allison crawled about 10 more feet before stopping and craning her head over the side of the balcony. What was it with werewolves and freaking warehouses. She heard Scott’s phone vibrate and snapped her head back around to glower at him. He gave her a sheepish shrug and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

            He grinned before whispering, “Stiles is making breakfast in the morning, he asked me and you to come.” He looked up from his phone and she was still glowering. Then it occurred to him, “you think he knows about psycho down there?”

            Allison shrugged. “Who knows, it’s Stiles, anything is possible.” She scooted forward just a little more. If she could just make out what the bitch was saying, she might be able to figure this whole thing out.

            Scott huffed out a breath. “I still don’t even really know what we’re doing. Why don’t we just talk to her Allison?” He asked plaintively.

            Allison sighed the sigh of an exasperated and defeated martyr. “Scott, we’ve been through this. I don’t know what her plan is, but if it’s to hurt anyone in the pack then we absolutely need to find out what she’s up to. If it turns out to be nothing, then we’ve hurt no one and the pack is safe.”

            Scott shrugged. “I just don’t like all this sneaking around.” He grumbled.

            “I know you don’t baby, but sometimes it’s necessary.” She leaned forward so she could look down again, and finally had a really good glimpse of Rachel in the company of three hunters she didn’t recognize. “Now listen to what they’re saying.” She demanded in a soft voice.

            “Fine.” Scott almost snapped. He leaned on his side and peered down at the group of people below them. Luckily for Scott, Allison was a genius. She’d followed Rachel home from work, and then followed her to this warehouse. She called Scott and told him to meet her, and then they’d broke into the warehouse from the roof. They were currently perched on a thick steel beam that ran the length of the warehouse. Scott listened carefully, but couldn’t make out everything they were saying. It was the same reason Rachel hadn’t heard them when they were talking. There was some sort of industrial factory nearby that was louder than anything Scott had ever heard.

            “She’s talking about her daughter, and about how Stiles is necessary because he’s the spark.” Scott’s eyes were widening. Allison had been right. “Now she’s saying that if they don’t capture them alive the ritual won’t work.” Scott turned to Allison with a grim expression on his face. “What in the hell does she want with my best friend?”

            Allison frowned. “I’m not sure Scott, but it doesn’t sound good.”

            He turned back to the people below so he could hear what they were saying. “They’re planning for the full moon this Friday.” He leaned a bit further, but that was all he could make out. The hunter’s were leaving and Scott and Allison were stuck until they were sure Rachel was absolutely gone and not coming back. Scott turned his head to look at his girlfriend curiously. “What brought all this on? I mean why all of a sudden did you start following Rachel around?”

            Allison sighed. I saw something a couple of weeks ago that made me curious. With what I saw, and my father’s reports of a mysterious dark haired woman hanging around the Theron’s, I wanted to know if she was the mysterious dark haired woman. Looks like I was right. We need to tell Derek and Stiles.” She said, pulling herself up and getting ready to head out.

            Scott nodded his agreement. “We can’t tell them tonight though.”

            Allison frowned. “Why not?”

            Scott grinned. “I’m pretty sure Rachel is going over to Derek’s, and if we tell Stiles there won’t be anything we can do to stop him from getting to Derek. Besides, he invited us to breakfast we can tell him then. I mean we know she’s not going to do anything until the full moon anyway.”

            Allison grinned, her dimples flashing prettily at Scott. “I love you.”

            He huffed a quiet laugh. “I love you too.” They grinned stupidly at one another for a minute before Scott motioned for Allison to get a move on. She flashed one more dimple filled grin before making her way back along the beam. “You know you could tell me exactly what you saw that made you curious enough to connect Rachel with the hunters.” Scott said conversationally.

            Allison nodded. “Of course. It was during training two weeks ago. You know the one where Stiles and I hid traps all around the preserve and you guys were supposed to disarm them all.” Scott nodded in remembrance.

**Allison: Two weeks prior**

            _Allison was headed to the Hale kitchen to grab a bottle of water. It had turned blistering hot by the time that she and Stiles had finished planting all of the hidden traps for the wolves. The wolves were already attempting to locate the first wave of traps, and they didn’t really need her there to give commentary. Before Stiles had taken off to set his traps he’d made sure to cast one of his wicked powerful stealth spells on them so that the wolves wouldn’t be able to uncover the traps by their scent. It also had the added benefit of allowing Stiles and Allison the ability to walk around the forest and watch the Betas make asses of themselves. That had been the plan anyway, before it turned sweltering hot._

_She made her way up to the house bypassing the front door and heading straight for the kitchen door on the side of the house. Unexpectedly she heard a yelp of pain from Stiles, it sounded like he was in the kitchen. Reaching out her hand to turn the door knob, she stopped abruptly when she heard Rachel’s voice. She wasn’t immediately alarmed, but then Rachel growled “I will fucking kill you, do you understand me?”_

_Allison’s eyes went wide with fury and indignation. Just who did this bitch think she was, she thought as she checked to be sure she was armed. Her hand was poised to slam the door open, but Stiles’ words stopped her. “_ _Honestly, after almost six months you’d think you would have developed a healthy sense of caution when around me. You so much as attempt to put your hands on me again and I will have you writhing on that floor in pain faster than you think you can move. I’m not stupid Rachel. I’ve been in this pack for over five years and I’ve learned a few things about keeping myself safe from werewolves. If you like your limbs attached you’ll back the fuck off.” Stiles voice was like ice trailing down Allison’s spine. He was serious, and from the sounds of it this wasn’t their first run in. Allison didn’t go in, choosing instead to listen in at the door. Stiles was more than capable of handling himself._

_Rachel’s response was muffled due to her growling inflection. “You won’t always be so aware Stilinski. You’ll be distracted one day, and your spark won’t save you.”Allison flattened herself against the wall so when Rachel stormed out of the kitchen she never saw her, and then she got another shock when she heard Stiles start hyperventilating and Peter was shushing him._

_“Stiles it’s okay. We’re close. She won’t be a problem for much longer. Everyone is going to be fine. Breathe with me.”_

_“I hate her.”_

_“I know, I know, she’s good, but we’re better. We’ll take care of it, and in just a few weeks we can let everyone know. We’ll have enough evidence.” Allison didn’t know what to think, who the hell was this woman? And why was Stiles keeping secrets from the pack? A part of her wanted to bang into the kitchen and confront the pair of them, but another part warned her that this was dangerous. This was dangerous and she trusted Stiles, he was doing his best so she’d start doing hers. The whole pack was in trouble, and she wasn’t about to let Stiles and Peter do this on their own._

_Besides, she’d seen the reports on the Theron’s on her father’s desk. The reports that said they were meeting up with a dark haired woman on a regular basis, and she was reportedly coming and going from the Beacon Hills area. Allison pondered as she walked away from the house._


	11. Breakfast is served

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Allison come over for breakfast.

Scott walks into Stiles apartment using the key that Stiles had given him the day after he’d moved in, for emergencies only he’d said. Scott felt like what was going down with Rachel was definitely an emergency. He headed directly for the kitchen, smelling Stiles deliciously cooking bacon, and plopped down in one of the bar stools. Allison was right behind him, and sat herself down on the stool next to him. Stiles nodded a greeting and sat two cups of coffee down before the pair.

            Scott didn’t really want to start the morning off with psycho Rachel talk, so he asked “Not that I don’t love the ground you walk on, because bacon, but why are you making us breakfast?”

            Stiles sat the breakfast plates down on the bar, and passed out plates for everyone. “Well some things are going on that I need to make you aware of.” He said evasively, and Scott’s ears perked up. Stiles being evasive meant serious business. Scott nearly fell off his stool. Derek walked out of Stiles bedroom and into the kitchen wearing nothing but his boxers.

            Scott pointed in betrayal. “When.” He waved his arm in Derek’s direction. “When did this happen? Is this the some things going down you’re referring too?” Scott was too affronted to appreciate the embarrassed flush on Derek’s cheek. His best friend was keeping secrets, and if his best friend was keeping secrets it was Derek’s fault. Usually Derek’s fault, he qualified. Allison sat beside him giggling into her coffee, and he gave her his best betrayed puppy look. She kissed his cheek in retaliation.

            Stiles just smiled fondly at his best friend. “This is a brand new development, as in yesterday brand new, and wasn’t really part of the some things conversation.” He had grabbed a plate and filled it with sausage, eggs, bacon, and a biscuit, and then handed over to Derek with a cup of coffee. The alpha nodded his head in gratitude, and then he leaned closer and gave Stiles a soft kiss.

            Scott crossed his arms over his chest. “Just what do the two of you have to say for yourselves.”

            Stiles laughed brightly, “Scott, man, seriously you are not my dad. Chill out dude. What we need to tell you involves Rachel, not us. So just shelve it til later. Alright?” Stiles said as he leaned over his plate of food. Derek had sat his plate right next to Stiles, and ate while standing at his side.

            Scott frowned. “What about Rachel?”

            Stiles face turned grim, and he looked Scott dead in the eyes, “She’s working with hunters, and I know you’re first knee jerk response is going to be that I must be crazy, but I promise you I’m telling the truth.” Stile said earnestly and with an almost pleading behind his words.

            Allison jabbed Scott in the side, and he grunted in response. “We know.”

            Stiles eyes went wide. “You know.” Then his eyes narrowed. “How exactly do you  know?” He asked carefully.

            “Just found out last night, for sure anyway. Allison has suspected for a couple of weeks. Apparently the Theron family has been hanging around and meeting with a mysterious dark haired woman. Allison and I followed her last night.” Scott relayed what they’d heard from the hunter’s and the wolf. Stiles in turn told him everything he knew, and that Lydia would be dropping by with more information shortly.

            Scott finished up breakfast, and came around the bar to Stiles side. Derek had turned around and started doing the dishes, so Scott figured there was no better time. He wrapped his arms around Stiles and said, “No matter what the situation Stiles, you are still my best friend. As my best friend you are well aware that I’ve always got your back. No matter what, you could have told me dude and I would have helped you.” He let his head rest on Stiles shoulder.

            Stiles took a suspiciously jagged breath. “I know man, I know. It wasn’t about you being my best friend, it was about me putting the puzzle pieces together so I had enough of the picture to show you guys.”

            Scott nodded against Stiles shoulder, “I’m willing to let it go this time, but if it ever happens again you are going to have some serious bro-groveling to do. The first of which is a camping trip without tents, wide open spaces and no one to get you back home but me. Think about that the next time you want to leave me out of what’s going on.”

            Stiles snorted and couldn’t keep the horrified look of his face. Scott was notoriously directionally challenged, even as a werewolf. “I’m almost shocked by that wicked attempt at a threat. You’re learning, I’m so proud.” Stiles ruffled Scott’s hair and turned to Allison, “have you been giving him lessons.” Allison laughed loudly, her dimples sparking and lighting her face up. Stiles appreciated that his best friend had found one deliciously gorgeous female to spend the rest of his life with. He turned back to Scott for one more bro hug, and as they parted Derek came up behind him to wrap his arms around his middle. From one moment to the next, the entire pack had arrived. Throwing themselves on furniture they gathered comfortably as they could in the small apartment living room.

            They spent some time getting everyone on the same page, and Lydia passed around her file folder of illicit government information. “So any insights into the mind of Matta Hari?” Lydia posed to the question to the group as a whole. She looked around the room with a sort of surprised grimace. “Where’s peter by the way?”

            Stiles shrugged. “He’s been following a lead he found, said he’d be back sometime later tonight and that we should find out everything we can, and if he finds anything he’ll tell me when he gets back in town.”

            “What was the lead?” She asked curious as ever.

            “Something about a store in Sun Haven Valley that sells magical herbs or something, it’s where Deaton buys his mountain ash. Anyway, Peter knows the owner and they let him know that someone had bought out almost their entire stock of purified witches salt. And that means, someone is gearing up for a huge ritual. Peter went down to get a scent from the buyer, see if it was Rachel. Lydia nodded in acceptance.

            Stiles started poring over the pages while sitting in Derek’s lap on the couch. He noted her birthday and legal marriage application, and the birth of her daughter three years ago. Allison and Scott had said that she was speaking about her daughter in the warehouse. “Maybe she’s trying to secure the territory so she can get her daughter away from her husband, because obviously she doesn’t have her with her now. I mean for a werewolf aren’t young like serious business. She’d do anything for her.” Stiles posited.

            Erica nodded vigorously from her perch on Boyd’s lap. “You bet your ass, if I had a kid I’d rip through anything and anyone to keep them safe.”

            Stiles and Lydia took one long look at each other, “then this definitely involves the kid, but why are her and her husband separated.” Then Stiles remembered, “I’m supposed to be getting a call from him sometime today guys. Maybe he can shed some light on his psycho Stepford Wife.”

            Lydia came over to rest at Jackson’s side, he’d taken up his regular perch on the end of the couch. “In the mean time, there’s something that Jackson and I feel we need to let everyone in on, now that everyone knows about Rachel.”

            Jackson cleared his throat. “As much as Stilinski irritates the life out of me, yeah I think everyone needs to hear what happened. Lydia and I talked about just letting it go, but I can’t. It was about four days ago when……………


	12. Jackson really does have a heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackson reveals he has feelings about the pack and Stiles role in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found this quote, and I kind of think it goes along with the story. It struck a chord anyway. I have no idea who the author is, I wish I could totally give them credit. If anyone knows I'd appreciate it if you could tell me ;D annnnyyyyway the quote:
> 
> Rescuing isn’t a one-way street: in a modern relationship, partners take turns rescuing and being rescued.

_Stilinski is annoying. Stilinski drives him crazy. Stilinski is smart. Stilinski hates Rachel. Stilinski doesn’t hate people unless they give him a reason. The kid doesn’t know how to instantly dislike someone. He gives everyone a chance. That means he gave Rachel a chance and she had to of done something that Stiles didn’t like. She was the Alpha’s piece so it’s not like Stiles could go round to Derek and bitch about it, in fact no one said anything against Rachel for that reason alone._

_There was something going on though, and he wanted to know what. So he’d been watching. He’d also seen the way Lydia looked at her. Lydia wasn’t jealous of Rachel, they weren’t even in the same league so it wasn’t a girl thing, it was an I don’t trust you within an inch of my life or Stilinski’s thing. Jackson wasn’t stupid. Lydia was with him for a reason. He could figure shit out just as well as Stilinski, he just couldn’t be assed to do it most of the time._

_Rachel finally fucked up about a week ago. It’s also where Jackson realized it wasn’t a jealous bitch marking her territory. Her dislike of Stiles had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Derek. It was personal. Jackson heard her corner him in the bathroom of all places. Jackson was upstairs and meant to be asleep. He controlled his heart beat and kept his breathing even. Rachel didn’t even pause. Stiles had the sink and the shower on, and an Ipod playlist blaring through speakers. He’d apparently wanted some one-on-one time with his dick, so there’s no way anyone downstairs could have heard the filth she was spitting at Stiles. The only reason Jackson could hear was because his room was right beside the bathroom._

_It started off with a general rant about his worthlessness as a human and deteriorated into him being a stupid asshole that the pack couldn’t care less about. Jackson could hardly believe that Stiles didn’t fight back, but he didn’t. He didn’t say a word. As soon as she left Jackson listened hard, and he heard it, the slight blip of Stiles’ heart, and then the ragged breathing of someone who was desperately fighting tears._

_Oh fucking hell no. As soon as Stiles got out of the shower, Jackson met him at the bathroom door. Stiles looked like shit, but Jackson ignored it. “I don’t feel good man, and I don’t want to interrupt the pack movie. You mind laying down with me for a bit. Our pack bond should settle me, I mean if that’s cool.” Jackson was reminding Stiles that there was a magical pack bond between all of them, so no matter what the bitch had said, Stiles was pack. Stiles eyes got round but he nodded. They fell asleep on the bed wrapped around one another and Jackson plotted exactly how he was going to rip that bitches face off_.

            “It doesn’t really matter exactly what she said, but there for a minute Stiles, you believed her when she said you weren’t pack. So Lydia and I think we all need to have a moment to assure Stiles that he’s pack.” Jackson looked around the room. He knew he was the asshole of the bunch, just like he knew that most everyone thought he hated Stilinski. But when it came to people he cared about, and the pack was everyone he cared about, Jackson didn’t mess around. He would protect and defend what he considered to be his no matter what the situation.

            He took note of all the faces around the room. They’d been shocked by his story he could tell. Stiles believing for one instant that he wasn’t part of the pack, hurt them. The only reason he would believe it, is if they had made him feel it at some point. That had been Lydia’s contribution to the argument the night before.

            So the pack all started talking at once, their loud exclamations filing the air. Stiles shouted above them, “I never felt like I wasn’t pack guys, she just caught me at a weak moment.”

            Derek growled, “Even at your weakest, when you feel like you have nothing left, you should know that you are pack. That you are a part of us, wrapped up in our instincts and our DNA. She shouldn’t be able to make you feel like you are an outsider.” Derek’s growl had turned into a shout, and soon the pack was back to talking all over themselves. Stiles protests drowned out by the arguments.

Lydia quickly shut them up. “Stiles take down the shield.” She demanded. Stiles looked like he was going to argue, but Derek squeezed him a little tighter. Isaac got up from the floor and moved the coffee table to the far wall.

            He was apparently going first in the pack’s unspoken desire to reassure Stiles of his place. “Stiles, I know we had some tough years back in high school. Both of us were kind of messed up about life and pack, but being here with you guys brings me a peace. A peace I didn’t think I’d ever feel when living with my dad after my mom and brother were gone. You’re smart and brave, and there’s no one I’d rather have protecting me than you.” Isaac wasn’t afraid of talking about how he felt, so him leading the charge only made sense. Stiles was staring in wonder at the curly haired Beta, and Jackson felt his heart squeeze.

            Erica was next in line. “You’re the Batman to my Catwoman obviously, but unlike those two I’d never not chose to save you first. Pack.” Erica was direct and that’s all she really needed to say, but she tacked on, “I love you Stiles, and I’d rip anyone to shreds for hurting you. Just say the word.” Stiles nodded his acceptance, and started twisting the blanket he’d draped over his knees, in his hands.

            Boyd looked a little uncomfortable, but he made his feelings on the subject known without objecting. “You’re my brother, my family, and I didn’t choose you. But, I wouldn’t trade you for anyone.” Boyd’s declaration was short and sweet, and Jackson noticed that Stiles was starting to tear up. His emotions were all over the place, and Jackson decided it was kind of nice being able to feel what was going on with the guy. So often, he chose to remain subdued or a mystery.

            Scott didn’t hesitate, and Jackson was a little envious of his open display of affection. He truly didn’t care what anyone thought. He felt what  he felt. “You are my pack, even when we weren’t in Derek’s pack, you were my pack. We’re bros for life. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to any of us, without you we never would have come together. And, without you we never would have stayed together. So yeah, you know I love you man.”

            Allison was next, and she gushed for a bit about how smart and funny Stiles was, and then she got serious. “I have a place in this pack because of you. Derek and I weren’t on the greatest terms, but you made him give me a chance. You made me give me a chance. When Scott and I weren’t together, you came to me and you helped me. Without you I wouldn’t be as happy as I am right this very minute, without you I’d be bitter and filled with hate. So it goes without saying, I love you too.” Her smile was bright and full of life. Jackson watched as tears began to slowly trickle down Stiles face. Happiness like what he was feeling made contentment wrap around Jackson almost like a magical blanket.

            Lydia went next. “You have always been there for me. Without question and without artifice, and that’s something that I can’t even say about my own parents. You don’t withhold things from me because you think I can’t handle it, you appreciate everything about me from my looks to my brains. It makes me wonder why you think I can’t do the same to you. I never withhold things from you because I don’t think you can handle it, I appreciate everything about you from your looks to your brains. In high school I was selfish, and I like to think because of your influence on me, I’ve grown out of that. You made me see that the artificial bullshit I wrapped myself in was so much less than the strength I could get from surrounding myself with people that love me.” She bent down to her knees in front of Stiles and Derek. “You are without a doubt one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, because you never let me get in the way of me. So now I’m returning the favor. You are loved unconditionally by this pack, and you had best start believing it.” She ended in her firm no nonsense voice. The one she’d perfected over years of dealing with people who were not quite as smart as she was.

            Finally, it was Jackson’s turn, and he was coming up short. He didn’t have a prepared speech, and he didn’t want it to sound like he didn’t care. He did care. An idea struck. He turned to Stiles, “I know I’m a dick.” Everyone laughed a little at his statement, but he went on. “I know I’m a dick because you tell me regularly at least every other day.” Stiles tears had dried up, and now he was looking at Jackson with confusion. Jackson plowed on. “Other people are afraid to say it to my face, something about them intimidates the hell out of them. You’ve always said what you think of me, afraid of me or not.” Stiles nods as does the rest of the room. Jackson was about to reveal something even Lydia didn’t know, and he hoped she forgave him.

            “That’s why when you came to me in Florida, I listened. If it had been anyone else I think I would have thrown them out, or ignored them.” He felt Lydia’s eyes go wide, and small gasps could be heard from the rest of the pack. “You’ve never been afraid to lay everything out on the table, so like Allison, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have a life. I wouldn’t have Lydia or this pack. I would have fucked everything up. Because you weren’t afraid to confront me with the truth, and you made me not afraid to face it. So, I still might be a dick sometimes, but I don’t want you to ever stop pointing it out. Because if you did, I don’t know how I would keep myself grounded.” The tears that had stopped were back in full measure. Jackson wasn’t much for touchy feely pack stuff, but feeling Stiles emotions and his own he couldn’t resist reaching out for Stiles.

            And like dominoes falling the rest of the pack came together. They were wrapped around each other, nobody knowing where the other began or ended. They were a solid unit. They were family. And at the center of it all was Stiles and Derek. Jackson could clearly hear Derek’s voice when he said, “Stiles you are my life.” So like Derek to sum up everything in as few words as possible, but it seemed to be fine as far as Stiles was concerned because he buried his head in Jackson’s shoulder and let everything out. He cried for twenty minutes and the pack eventually shifted so they were all laying on the floor cuddled together in a big pile.


	13. A knock on the door.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this somehow got knocked off the end of the last chapter. I'm not sure why it didn't post, I was sure I copy and pasted it, but whatever here it is. I apologize if this causes any confusion, O.O

A pounding on the door, knocked all of them out of the lethargic sense of peace that had pervaded the room. Derek untangled himself from the pile and made his way to the door. He opened it to reveal a man that no one recognized.

            “I’m Simon Baker, and I hear you’ve found my missing wife.” He said by way of introduction.

            Stiles mouth dropped open, his brain still muddled by the awesome puppy pile. “You were supposed to call.” He said sluggishly.

            Mr. Baker came into the apartment, and took in the Hale pack lounging around the living room. “Yes well, that was a lie. I never intended to call, time is of the essence and I didn’t want to scare you off. I always intended to show up, because you needed to hear this from me face to face so you can understand the gravity of the situation. Now, if I’m not mistaken you’re a spark. The man who just answered the door is an Alpha. And the pair of you make the perfect ingredients to a spell that my wife has been obsessed with since our daughter was killed last year.”

            Once again the pack was all talking at once, but this time Derek Alpha’d them quiet. “Will you explain please.” He asked indicating the man should take a seat on the couch. He declined the seat and stood in front of everyone like he was giving a speech.

            “My wife and I had been together most of our lives. Werewolves have a way of finding the right person and sticking with it, but we held off on having kids. It’s dangerous with the kind of people who come after us on a regular basis. But three years ago we decided it was time, and Rachel got pregnant. For two years we were the happiest two people could possibly ever hope to be.” Simon sighed. “That all changed a year ago when Argent’s came through our territory. They had hooked up with some local hunters, and the local hunters used the Argent’s to set fire to one of the cabins on our pack’s land. That cabin had my daughter and her baby sitter inside. They both died in the fire.”

            Allison was holding her hand across her mouth and breathing deeply to attempt to contain her tears. “Why didn’t my father tell me?” She asked.

            Simon shook his head. “Chris and I dealt with the situation. He didn’t condone what went on that night, and helped me hunt down the hunters. He said he would be more than happy to set an example to hunters that didn’t follow the code. And if I ever needed anything all I had to do was ask. I didn’t blame Chris and I still don’t. It wasn’t his fault a rogue Alpha used my territory as hunting grounds. If he hadn’t come to town, the locals would have found another way to get to Aurelia. That being said, my wife wasn’t even interested in forgiving or not forgiving.”

            Stiles asked, “What was she interested in?”

            “A spell that could bring our daughters life back.” He said with a tired sigh. Another shocked gasp went through the room. “A ritual involving a spark and an alpha that combines their life forces could potentially awaken Aurelia’s soul. It’s blood magic and no matter how much I pleaded with Rachel I couldn’t make her understand that our daughter was gone. Whatever she brings back, if the spell even would work, wouldn’t be our daughter.”

            “Jeezus Christ.” Said Stiles. They weren’t just dealing with a psycho, they were dealing with a driven psycho. “She won’t stop at anything will she.”

            Simon shook his head. “No, that’s why I needed to tell you face to face. So you could understand. She won’t stop. Ever.”

            The pack all took a minute to take in that information, and Scott broke the silence with “at least we know she’s not going to make a move until Friday. She needs that particular full moon for the ritual. And if Peter comes through with information on the ingredients maybe we can find the actual ritual and disrupt it somehow.”

            Stiles jumped up from Derek’s lap. “Fantastic idea Scott. I’ll start looking for the ritual now, the rest of you fan out and see what you can see. Someone needs to be tailing Rachel. We’ll all meet back here when Peter shows up. Sound like a plan?” He asked the room at large.

            They all nodded, grabbing keys and purses and heading out to track down as much information as possible. Simon stayed with Stiles to check the bestiary and the book collection that Stiles had going on in his room.

            Focusing on research tended to make Stiles oblivious, so it wasn’t really all that difficult to imagine the next 30 minutes of his life. Rachel broke into his apartment with six hunters, subdued Derek, Stiles, and Simon; and hauled them to the warehouse district. Aparently the spell needed to be prepped and it took some time to get it done. Since Stiles hadn’t actually gotten his hands on a copy of the spell he couldn’t for sure say what the hell was going on. Luckily for them, the pack knew exactly when warehouse the whole thing was going down in, they just needed them to come to the rescue.


	14. Peter Arrives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter comes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was previously chapter 13, but because of copy paste confusion I had to post a missing part which pushed this to chapter 14. Sorry ;(

Peter opened the door to Stiles’ apartment with dread filling his stomach. He could smell that the apartment was off, there were pack scents but danger scents as well. What the hell happened? Inside some of the furniture was turned over, and what had clearly been an all out fight had taken place in the living room. Peter dialed Derek first and wasn’t all that surprised when it went to voicemail. He called Scott next and breathed a sigh of relief when the kid picked up. “I’m at Stiles’ apartment, and he’s not here. Derek’s not answering his phone, and this place looks like someone tore the place up. Have you any idea why?” He asked.

            Scott cursed loudly. “They were supposed to be there with Simon trying to find out more about the ritual. Damnit I’m coming over, I’ll call the rest of the pack.” Scott hung up his phone without saying goodbye, and Peter started to look around. He could vaguely smell Rachel, but for the others he hadn’t much more information that he had when he’d arrived. The pack barreled through the door and came to an abrupt stop. Peter watched as they took in the scene before them. Derek had filled him in on what the pack knew, and he was positive that Derek had said the ritual couldn’t be performed until the full moon.

            “It’s only been a few hours sense we all left. Christ it’s not going down until Friday, why would she risk capturing them almost two days ahead of time?” Scott pondered out loud and Peter took a moment to be proud of the kid. He’d come such a long way from that overly stubborn, pig headed know what’s best for everyone arrogance he’d been guilty of in his teens.

            “When I spoke with the store owner in Sun Haven Valley she gave me the distinct impression that the resurrection spell that she had sold some of the ingredients for was so far beyond dangerous that she’d never heard of a living being trying to manage it. She said that there wasn’t enough tangible information about the ritual for it to be anything but a deadly risk. If I’m right she’s taken them early so she can practice a bit before the big night.” He said it almost sardonically and the rest of the pack just looked at him with slack jawed horror. He wanted to scoff and say, what it’s not me that’s doing the practicing and also not me trying to do the resurrection thing this time.

            “Well we need to find them, that’s our first priority.” Erica snapped out.

            Scott nodded. “Definitely and if she’s a creature of habit then Allison and I may have a good idea of where they’re holding them. The same place she met with the hunters yesterday. We can’t just bust in there though, what if she’s got some sort of magic holding them? We need to scout it out.” Scott’s sensible attitude was enough to make Peter want to snort. He leaned against the kitchen counter and tried to reconcile everything he knew with everything that was going on.

            Then he had an idea. “Lydia how comfortable are you with spell casting?”

            “To save Stiles and Derek I’ll be as comfortable as you need me to be.” She said fiercely.

            “Good. So this is the way I see it, we’re up against one werewolf and an unknown number of hunters. Humans, when it comes down to it, are susceptible to just about all magics and they are incredibly weak. However, we don’t want the Theron’s enmity for eternity that’s just going to give us all a headache. What we want is for Rachel to be taken out, and the Theron’s to get lost. Does that sound about right?” He waited for the to all nod in approval.

            “Spectacular. All we need to do to incapacitate a room full of hunters is put them to sleep.” He said with a theatrical sort of flourish.

            Everyone was looking at him like he’d gone around the bend again. Peter sighed, what cretins. “We judiciously borrow those ridiculous flash bombs Chris is so fond of, we have Lydia spell them with a sleep spell, and be sure to bring an antidote for Stiles. This probably won’t take care of all of them, but they’ll be so surprised I bet it knocks out half before they get their shit together.” Once he finished his explanation the kids looked way more appreciative of his brilliance. Just because he was a werewolf and he liked ripping out throats didn’t mean he didn’t know how to strategize without all the blood and gore. Honestly didn’t they know who he was.

            “Now Allison go fetch the flash bombs, Lydia I’m sure you don’t need my instructions, the rest of you figure out who’s going to be doing the reconnaissance on the warehouse.” He gave the orders sharply, but wasn’t at all surprised when Scott piped up with “And what will you be doing?” Peter rolled his eyes, “trying to make sense of this blasted resurrection spell. I want Derek and Stiles out alive just as much as you do Scott, but to achieve that end we may need more information on this ritual.”

            Scott nodded his understanding and turned to the remaining pack members to work out a strategy for getting info on the warehouse. Peter found a cushion on the couch that wasn’t ripped to shreds, and opened his laptop. The spell was difficult because of the specific requirements. Peter knew enough about dangerous spells that looking at the info he couldn’t believe anyone would ever attempt this madness.

Failure resulted in the casters body being eaten alive by wraiths. He’d never seen a wraith, and he never wanted to. All the lore on them just said run and don’t look back or ask questions. The resurrection ritual called for some very specific items, so specific that he shuddered with revulsion. He’d brought himself back to life, and he’d used an innocent young woman’s mind to foster the resurrection, but he hadn’t physically harmed her, nor had he done any lasting damage. Besides making her hate him for eternity, and he could live with that. He could live with himself. The only thing that woke him up in a cold sweat was remembering Laura. Madness was a double edged sword of righteousness and hatred he supposed.

For Rachel to complete the ritual she needed the body of a child, the freshly dead body of a child. He wanted to choke on her cruelty. To desire her child so much she was willing to take someone’s baby from them, it made him shudder. Justice was one thing, he was all for a little take charge justice, but outright murder was something he had trouble with. It was a portion of why his killing Laura hurt him so much, and why Derek let him stay. His honest remorse and the deterioration of his mind at the time of her death were excuses, but Derek allowed him to stay because of the pain her death caused. His nephew could be a hard ass.

He focused back on the ritual, she also needed the beating heart of a spark and the lifeblood of a born werewolf with alpha status. Weren’t they just lucky that Stiles and Derek met both criteria. Most of the rest of the ingredients were herbs and minerals to help the facilitation of the magic. The spark’s heart would ignite the spell, and the Alpha’s blood would seal the spell. So she was going to cut out Stiles’ heart and then bleed Derek. They really needed to get them away from her.


End file.
